Stimulus Fails - Unemployment Rises

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. unemployment rate rose in August for the first time in four months as weak hiring by private employers wasn't enough to keep pace with a large increase in the number of people looking for work.

The Labor Department says companies added a net total 67,000 new jobs last month, down from July's upwardly revised total of 107,000. Wall Street analysts expected a smaller gain, according to Thomson Reuters.

Overall, the economy lost 54,000 jobs as 114,000 temporary census positions came to an end. State and local governments shed 10,000 positions. The jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July.

More than a half-million Americans resumed their job searches in August, which drove up the jobless rate. - FOX News

Arizona Governor Falls Apart in Opening of Debate

Obama Trying to Figure out How to Spend your Money to Help Elections

The Obama administration is mulling a raft of emergency fixes to stimulate the economy before the midterms, including an extension of the research and development tax credit and new infrastructure spending, according to several people familiar with the situation.

Administration officials have been huddling almost continuously during the past week, brainstorming for ideas that would boost employment without hiking the massive federal deficit – with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner rushing to the West Wing for further consultations late Thursday.

The White House press office on Thursday refused to say how much a financial package might be, other than to say it won’t be a “second stimulus.” But the administration will have a tough time selling nearly any package to terrified, Obama-phobic Hill Democrats who increasingly blame the president – and his ambitious, expensive legislative agenda – for their dismal prospects this November.

The meetings, which had Obama huddling with his economic advisers twice in the last seven days, have yielded no specific proposals. But he’s given the team a priority: find ways to pay for as many of the ideas, mostly tax breaks, as possible without a deficit increase, an administration official told POLITICO. - Politico Story

Obama Has Cut Border Security by almost 50%

President Obama thinks that by recently signing a new bill spending $600 million to beef up border enforcement he will look tough on illegal aliens. But decisions such as today’s lawsuit by the Justice Department against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to stop his policies regarding illegal aliens shows where the administration’s policies are really headed.

The bill Obama signed, which authorizes the hiring 1,500 new border personnel, the deployment of a pair of unmanned reconnaissance drones, and replacing some bases along the border is valuable, but it hardly undoes what the president has done up to this point. With a recent Rasmussen poll showing that 68 percent of U.S. voters support a plan to continue building a fence on the Mexican border, Obama's change strikes one as a temporary smoke screen.

Up until now the president has worked to cut the number of border agents. 384 border agents were cut last October 1st and in the 2011 fiscal year budget Obama proposed cutting another 180 agents through attrition.

But it isn't just his record of previously reducing the number of border agents. Obama has strongly opposed the use of fences, whether real ones or virtual ones. In March, he halted funding for the physical fence. Spending on "Total, CBP/Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology" (which included the virtual fence) has fallen from $1.05 billion in 2008 at the end of the Bush administration to $800 million in 2010 to $574 million in the coming 2011 budget. That is a $479 million annual cut, something that isn't going to be made up with a pair of unmanned drones.

Unfortunately, Obama appears to wish for continued illegal immigration as his administration has actively tried to stop states from helping enforce current federal laws. Consider the many actions that Obama has taken so far: - FOX News Story

Obama Deserves Some of the Credit for Drop in Illegal Border Crossings

The Obama administration is touting an independent report released Wednesday that shows that the number of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. fell by nearly 65 percent in recent years.

About 300,000 immigrants illegally entered the country each year from March 2007 to March 2009, nearly two-thirds fewer than the 850,000 who annually crossed the border from 2000 to 2005, according to the report by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.

An estimated 11.1 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2009, an 8 percent decline from the peak of 12 million in 2007. That represented the first significant decrease in two decades, the report said.

“We’ve seen a reversal in what had been a long-term growth in the unauthorized immigrant population,” Pew demographer Jeffrey Passel, who co-authored the report, told reporters.

The decline corresponded with a period when authorities beefed up border security and jobs dried up amid the economic recession, though researchers could not pinpoint precisely why immigrant numbers fell. - Politico Story

Obama wants some of the credit for this? Well by golly he gets some of the credit for it. Forget that Bush started building the wall. Forget that Bush beefed up the border.

A Big shift has been because of Obama. The Great One came through on this. He deserves the credit.

They stopped coming here because there is no Jobs!!!! There is no Money!!!! We are going Bankrupt!!!!!

OH SHIT!!!!! Forget it. Obama no longer wants the credit. It was Bush's fault.

20 More States Poised to Sign Arizona Style Immigration Laws?

It’s not just Arizona.

In states far from the Mexico border — from liberal Massachusetts to moderate Iowa — Democrats and Republicans in gubernatorial races are running on strict anti-illegal-immigration platforms, pledging to sign an array of tough enforcement measures into law come January.

Of the 37 gubernatorial races this year, candidates in more than 20 states have endorsed adopting a strict Arizona-style immigration law or passing legislation that makes it harder for illegal immigrants to live, work and access basic public benefits in their states, according to a POLITICO analysis.

The prevalence of the issue means the Obama administration could find itself battling Arizona-style flare-ups in statehouses across the country, raising pressure on the White House and Congress to break the deadlock in Washington over comprehensive immigration reform.

The Justice Department sued Arizona in hopes of discouraging other states from following its lead and won a ruling blocking provisions of the law that immigrant advocates found most objectionable. But that hasn’t stopped some gubernatorial candidates from trying to one-up each other on the issue. - Politico Story

Health Care Fine Print Coming to Light - Small Businesses Buried in Paperwork

Congressional Democrats found a lot of ways to pay for the country’s health insurance overhaul, some more popular than others. But one in particular has small lawn services, work-at-home parents and the nation’s smallest businesses mighty concerned. In a move to increase government revenues for health care while cutting tax abuses, Congress included a provision in the bill, approved in March, requiring businesses to file Internal Revenue Service reports on expenditures above $600 to any single vendor.

Here is how John Boehner, the House Republican leader and a leading critic of the provision (and the health insurance bill), derided it when he spoke at the City Club of Cleveland on Aug. 24: "If a landscaper wants to buy a new lawnmower, or a restaurant needs a new ice-maker, they have to report that to the feds. If you're a mom-and-pop grocery store, and you buy $1,000 worth of merchandise from 15 different vendors, that's 15 different forms you have to file."

We have to assume that Boehner, who’s from southwestern Ohio, meant the mom-and-pop store is spending $1,000 on each of the vendors, rather than spreading a $1,000 purchase among 15 vendors (because that would only be $66.66 each). If that is the case, Boehner’s statement is true, or will be as of Jan. 1, 2012. But Boehner is not the only one calling it nuts. So is the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and even a Cleveland congressman who is generally Boehner’s ideological opposite.

"This obviously was something that needed to be better thought out," said that congressman, Democrat Dennis Kucinich, in a telephone interview. "It has to be fixed, and it will be fixed, because it’s not tolerable." - Politifact

Good News for Wisconsin - Feingold is in Trouble

Control of the U.S. Senate increasingly appears to hang on the fate of an unlikely trio of Democratic incumbents who were elected along with Bill Clinton in 1992, hail from liberal-leaning states and have lived mostly charmed political lives.

At the start of the year, few observers thought the Senate was up for grabs in part because it seemed implausible that Washington’s Patty Murray, California’s Barbara Boxer and Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold were in any serious danger.

All three had won their last elections comfortably. And they were stockpiling the sort of money that flows readily to three-term senators.

But with the political environment turning toxic for Democrats and incumbents, Murray drawing perhaps her toughest possible opponent and Boxer and Feingold facing self-funders, the three Class of 1992 veterans are in the fight of their long political lives as the battle for control of the Senate moves from traditional battlegrounds to blue state venues.

The Senate majority could rest in their hands since it’s difficult to conjure a scenario where Republicans could pick up the 10 seats they need to reclaim the Senate without knocking off at least two of the three.

None of them will be easy to defeat—each is keenly attuned to the threat and has begun hammering the opposition. Senior Democrats, however, are increasingly worried about the trio and especially Murray and Feingold.

While Feingold has carved out an independent niche for himself in a state with a rich reform tradition, Wisconsin is hardly a left-wing bastion. President George W. Bush narrowly lost there twice and until recently Republicans controlled the state Assembly. And two years after he won the state by 14 percent, President Obama’s numbers there are sagging. So the turf is tougher for Feingold than it is for Boxer and Murray.

Feingold has an additional problem: he’s facing business executive Ron Johnson, an opponent who can fund his own campaign and has been up on TV continuously since Jun. - Politico Story

Obama Takes Credit for Iraq War Success?

President Obama's Oval Office address Tuesday evening was timed to mark the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, though it also came two months before midterm congressional elections that could hinge on the state of the domestic economy -- and Obama didn't shy from drawing links and contrasts between the two.

Obama portrayed the end of the U.S. combat role in the Iraq as an opportunity to shift more focus to rebuilding the economy, which some economists say is increasingly in danger of falling back into a recession.

"We have spent a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas. This, in turn, has short-changed investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits," he said, adding that too many middle-class families are working harder for less.

The troops in Iraq "have met every test that they faced," Obama said. "Now, it is our turn. Now, it is our responsibility to honor them by coming together, all of us, and working to secure the dream that so many generations have fought for -- the dream that a better life awaits anyone who is willing to work for it and reach for it".

But Republicans refused to allow Obama to move on without noting the credit they say was due to President Bush for the troop surge in 2007 that ultimately saved a losing war effort. Although Obama had opposed the surge as a senator, Republican leaders said he should have given Bush kudos for its success.

John McCain, the Republican senator who ran against Obama in the 2008 presidential election, called it "a real lack of generosity of spirit."

"What he should have said: 'I opposed the surge. I was wrong. I made a mistake and George W. Bush deserves credit for doing something that was very unpopular at the time,'" McCain told Fox News. "Instead he had to say it's well known that George Bush loves the troops." - FOX News Story

Obama's Stimulus Package Cost more than All 8 Years of Iraq War

As President Obama prepares to tie a bow on U.S. combat operations in Iraq, Congressional Budget Office

numbers show that the total cost of the eight-year war was less than the stimulus bill passed by the Democratic-led Congress in 2009.

According to CBO numbers in its Budget and Economic Outlook published this month, the cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom was $709 billion for military and related activities, including training of Iraqi forces and diplomatic operations.

The projected cost of the stimulus, which passed in February 2009, and is expected to have a shelf life of two years, was $862 billion.

The U.S. deficit for fiscal year 2010 is expected to be $1.3 trillion, according to CBO. That compares to a 2007 deficit of $160.7 billion and a 2008 deficit of $458.6 billion, according to data provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

In 2007 and 2008, the deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product was 1.2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. - Fox News Story

Support for Health Care Bill Drops even More

A new poll shows that public support for health care reform dropped sharply in August – a dagger in Democrats’ hopes that their landmark legislation will help them in November’s midterm.

The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll has support for the bill dropping seven percentage points in August – down to 43 percent – while opposition rose 10 points to 45 percent. That’s the weakest showing since May – and a far cry from the bump proponents had hoped to see as some of the law’s more consumer-friendly provisions kick in.

Democrats said throughout the year-long debate on Capitol Hill that support for the overhaul would increase once the bill passed and Americans were able to take advantage of some of its benefits. But it appears voters’ opinions of the legislation were set more firmly than anyone thought during the bruising political fight.

“Public opinion on health reform has been stuck in a fairly narrow band and is not changing dramatically,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “And with concerns about the economy and jobs dominating the public’s agenda and local issues always so important in midterm elections, it is not clear that health reform will play a significant role at the polls in November.” - Politico Story

Democrats Running Away from Pelosi

Some of the Democratic Party’s most endangered lawmakers are taking steps to distance themselves from Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an attempt to inoculate themselves from charges that they are beholden to the unpopular House leader and supportive of the ambitious national Democratic agenda.

Three vulnerable Democrats from conservative-oriented districts are already running TV ads spotlighting their defiance of Pelosi. One freshman incumbent recently joked about the possibility of Pelosi not being able to take up the gavel next year because she might pass away. Another member from a tough district suggested he might run for speaker himself.

The roster of Democrats currently playing six degrees of separation from Pelosi spans the map, from the Northeast to the South and across the Midwest to South Dakota. - Politico Story