John Metz, a restaurant owner in South Florida, announced he will add a 5 percent surcharge to customer bills to offset the increased overhead his company faces due to the Affordable Care Act.

Metz, who operates Denny’s and Hurricane’s Grill & Wings, told the Huffington Post, “If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 to 20%, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of the tip they give the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare.”

Metz is also cutting employee hours, which is has become commonplace as of late within the restaurant industry. Darden Restaurants, Papa John’s, Apple-Metro and Jimmy John’s have begun to make similar changes in their workforces.

The restaurant industry has extremely high turnover and rarely hires employees on a full-time basis for “front of the store” positions. Full-time status has been commonly defined as 40 hours per week, but the Affordable Care Act now mandates workers putting in 30 hours per week or more be considered full-time. The administrative costs associated with hiring full-time employees is high for low turnover industries, but for high attrition rate industries like food service is astronomical.

Metz said his current insurance for full-time employees costs $5,000 to $6,000 per year. “Obviously, I’d love to cover all our employees under that insurance, but to pay $5,000 per employee would cost us $175,000 per restaurant, and unfortunately, most of our restaurants don’t make $175,000 per year.”

With about 1,200 employees throughout more than 40 restaurant locations, Metz’ costs if he were to keep employee hours the same could have the potential to put him out of business, leaving all 1,200 employees jobless. The fines associated with Obamacare for employers who do not comply with the full-time employee mandates will face penalties of $2,000 per employee, which Metz claims will cost roughly $70,000 per restaurant annually.

Papa John’s and others have been targeted by leftwing media groups for making changes to their workforce and called for a boycott. To show support for companies having to make tough decisions in response to Obamacare, conservative citizen activist groups like Rebooting America are promoting “National Papa John’s Appreciation Day” via Twitter and other social media. The group has received national attention with Founder Justen Charters appearing on Fox Business Channel and more than 16,000 people have committed to the event via Facebook.

The event page reads, “Papa John’s has been targeted by the left for a boycott, for simply articulating that ObamaCare would hurt profits and force cutbacks in employee hours. Stand up to this nonsensical and illogical action and support Papa John’s this Friday!”

The group has also asked that anyone purchasing pizza on Friday to consider buying an extra pie to share with someone in need or a church group, charity or afterschool program.

Caterpillar’s Owatonna, MN production plant will cease production in March 2013, according to executives who met with the 100 laid-off workers just 2 days after the November 6th election.

“We value our employees’ contributions, and these actions are not a reflection of them, but rather the result of a need to make our business more efficient and competitive,” Caterpillar said in a statement.

Given the timing of the announcement and the outcomes in Minnesota state legislative races, one has to assume the move is at least in part politically motivated.

In 2010, on the wave of Tea Party and liberty-minded activists throughout the country, Minnesota’s state legislature saw a Republican led House and Senate for the first time in decades. The state had a $6.2 billion deficit at the time, despite having a Democrat governor. Just 2 years later, the Democrat party will again take control of the legislature and budget, now with a $1.2 billion surplus and no Republicans to stop the taxes and spending.

According to The Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research group in Washington, DC, Minnesota ranks 45th in the country on the State Business Tax Climate Index. It should be no surprise that companies will continue to leave Minnesota if the tax climate remains dismal. Others have already left or laid off thousands of employees in recent years including State Farm, Polaris and Lockheed Martin.

Caterpillar is one of many companies moving to more business-friendly states, decreasing their work force or closing shop altogether. The list of companies announcing layoffs and closings includes big names like Energizer, Bristol-Meyers, US Cellular and Boeing.

Ohio-based Murray Energy is the country’s largest privately owned coal mining company. CEO Robert Murray announced layoffs for more than 100 workers citing the reelection of President Obama and the administration’s “war on coal” as deciding factors.

Perhaps the American worker should have focused more on the Obama administration’s very real “war on jobs” and less on the manufactured “war on women.”

It is quite obvious that occupy Oval Office is shockingly unfamiliar with the concept that jobs are downstream from profits, not the other way around. With the exception of the original staff, which is hired to launch a company via startup capital (notice that here too, private capital comes before hiring), businesses only become financially capable of hiring more workers after they have made profits. Being profitable gives them the capital needed to pay for expansion, which then creates the need to hire additional employees. This is especially true of small businesses, most of which are decidedly not over funded with start-up capital.

According to “progressives”, the rich are somehow preventing the middle class from having a fair shot because the rich are depriving the middle class by not paying “their fair share” of taxes. The “progressive” concept of the middle class having a fair shot is stealing money from those who have earned it through initiative, hard work, risk and sacrifice within the free market capitalist system through “progressive” taxation and use that money, acquired through legal extortion, to hire unionized government sector workers. Workers who will not only be paid more than their counterparts who are doing the same job in the private sector, but who will enjoy Cadillac healthcare and pension benefits provided to them by a taxpayer funded job from which, thanks to union demands, being fired will be a virtual impossibility.

Still wonder why “progressives” love government sector unions?

Such an arrangement is perfectly suited to “progressives”, who are huge proponents of centrally planned big government. Workers dependent upon government for their livelihood are reliably more likely to re-elect big government candidates. They are also far more likely to pay little concern to how much the rich are taxed, since the taxes of unionized government workers won’t be affected.  That is, if they’re even required to pay taxes. Their big government big brothers take care of them.

Winston Smith, where are you?

Of course, the “they don’t pay their fair share” rhetoric is a complete sham, a straw-man argument. Truth be known, the “they don’t pay their fair share” rhetoric is a bold faced lie. The top 10% earners in America pay 70% of the income taxes while 47% of Americans pay no income tax. They pay zero.

How much of a tax on the rich would be enough to satisfy “progressives”? How much of someone else’s money does the Oval Office need to take for the middle class to have “a fair shot”? The 100% rate Barrack Obama Sr. sought to impose on Kenya’s rich after he seized power?

Can you say redistributive dreams from my Marxist father?

This clearly demonstrates how clueless Barrack Hussein Obama is about the way America was designed by its Founding Fathers. Having a fair shot in America has never been about big government stealing from the rich to finance hiring unionized government sector workers.

Having a fair shot has always been about a constitutionally limited government not interfering with the private sector free market’s ability to afford equal opportunity to everyone, regardless of their starting point in life. In America, government’s job is not to “take care of us”. In America, a centrally planned big government can never replace the initiative, creativity, hard work, sacrifice, risk, and reward of free, private Citizens working to provide for their own needs through the pursuit of happiness within the private sector.

If it ever does, America will have ceased to exist.

Instead of digging the United States into an ever-deepening hole by reducing available free market capital through higher tax rates, how about creating some certainty for investors by making permanent changes to America’s needlessly complicated tax code? How about creating a simplified tax code that provides incentives for investment? How about creating a tax code that’s doesn’t punish small businesses by forcing them  each year to divert limited precious capital to pay the cost of hiring accountants and attorneys to decipher an ever “evolving”, increasingly complicated tax code? How about creating an economic environment where the rich, middle class and poor alike all feel it’s worth the risk to invest in a start-up business? Thanks to existing, unnecessarily high “progressive” tax rates and expanding, restrictive, needlessly expensive regulatory oppression, starting up a new business today is practically impossible.

Better still, how about “progressives” going back to school to learn what America is really all about? In the meantime, they should leave running America to Americans.

Obama has had four years.  He got his fair shot, and he blew it.

After 100 years of progressively expanding government intrusion into the God given Rights and Liberties of free people, it is now time to forever close the book on the failed “progressive” experiment.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/close-the-book-forever-on-the-failed-progressive-experiment/

The administration continues to cite the European debt crisis and economic slowdowns in Asia as deterrents to investment.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-23/jobless-claims-in-u-s-climb-for-second-week-to-one-month-high.html

It is far easier to blame the global economy than to admit that this administration’s energy policies are killing jobs in America.  That this administration poked their thumbs into the eyes of millions of unemployed Americans when they laughed about “shovel-ready” projects not being as “shovel-ready” as advertised.  It is not the least bit funny to Americans when they discover that this administration does not know what they are doing, especially after they spent trillions of taxpayer dollars on plans that did not work and redistributed hundreds of billions of the taxpayer’s wealth to rich “progressive” bundlers for the administration’s campaign machine.

Across the country, Americans have had enough of this administration’s policies, starting with those that kill jobs; like the healthcare reform law that levies huge tax hikes on all Americans and imposes additional burdens on businesses.  Americans are done with the policies that are killing America’s energy industry, like stifling EPA regulations that make it impossible to build new petroleum refineries or use coal powered energy.  Americans can no longer tolerate a lack of policy; a lack that precludes any hope for recovery in the housing market.  Many small businesses will find it difficult if not impossible to exist, much less expand and hire while banking regulations imposed during this administration make it virtually impossible for banks to loan them money.

Why does America continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on foreign energy rather than developing the abundant energy in its own country? Why not keep those hundreds of billions of dollars at home in its own sluggish, cash strapped economy?

At a time when tens of millions of Americans are struggling to find work and its economy is starving for liquid capital, why does this administration refuse to take advantage of America’s wealth of natural resources? Why does this administration continue to prevent drilling for oil and natural gas or mining for coal? Why not put Americans back to work building refineries and power plants? Why not have Americans delivering gas, coal and natural gas to American consumers?

How many peripheral jobs will be created by that process?

For every new oil well, power plant, refinery or mine there will be new roads built, followed by restaurants, stores, housing, schools and places of worship. All generated by the only force capable of powering America’s economic recovery: the private sector.

The key to economic recovery in America is a shift in policy.  The only way for that shift to happen is to alter the governing philosophy.  For that alteration to take place, America must elect a new sheriff and new deputies.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/america-needs-a-new-sheriff/

“Congress could be least productive since 1947”

Three of the first four paragraphs of this “headline news” story focus on attacking the Republican majority in the House of Representatives for the recent lack of legislative success.  This is obviously typical of the “progressive” Party Pravda, which never misses an opportunity to parrot messages being dictated by the George Soros funded Media Matters via Valerie Jarrett and the White House.

Statistics are being manipulated and misrepresented by partisan hacks posing as journalists: “Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2 percent of all proposed laws,” or “In 2011, after Republicans took control of the U.S. House, Congress passed just 90 bills into law.

http://news.yahoo.com/congress-could-least-productive-since-1947-011137011.html?_esi=0&

It might be statistically true that “Congress is on pace to make history with the least productive legislative year in the post-World War II era,” but to so strongly insinuate that this is the fault of the House Republican majority, as Davis, USA Today, ABC News and Yahoo News do is a lie.  Utter fabrication…pure unadulterated fiction.

Where the article fails completely (that is if you are seeking factual information rather than “progressive” propaganda) is in the “reporting” of why those numbers are so abysmal.

The United States Senate, under the extreme, partisan, rigidly ideological, failed “leadership” of “progressive” Democrat Harry Reid, has blocked, obstructed, ignored or refused to allow a majority of House passed bills to even come to a vote in the U.S. Senate.

How is any bill passed by the House ever to become law if it is completely blocked from discussion or vote in the Senate?

The reason so many people believe the House is to blame for this situation is the lies spread by institutionalized “progressive” shills like Yahoo News, Susan Davis, USA Today, ABC OTUS News and their ilk.

Should the 112^th Congress come to be “defined by partisan divisions and legislative failures”, the blame will rest squarely at the slumping, rounded shoulders of Reid and his “progressive” co-conspirator currently occupying the Oval Office.  The “progressive” Democratic Senate majority has not even passed a budget in three years.  They even voted down the one that came from the Oval Office 97-0.

This is a clear dereliction of duty by the “progressive” Democratic Party.  Thanks to the utter failure of their “progressive” policies, the one and only card left for them to play is using Saul Alinsky style smear tactics against the right attempting to blame the right for problems caused by the left.  This has been the modus operandi of “progressives” since they seized control of the Democratic Party.

The most egregious of lies propagated by the institutionalized “progressive” left is the one put forth by Nancy Pelosi during the TARP debate.  On September 28, 2008 Pelosi placed the blame for the economic collapse entirely on George W. Bush and failed Republican economic policies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnyyAKn-I9o

The 2008 financial collapse was a direct result of failed “progressive” social engineering in the U.S. housing market.  For decades the U.S. has had nothing remotely resembling a free market in residential real estate.  Instead, “progressive” big government created monstrosities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac controlled over half of all U.S. mortgages.  For twenty years, Conservatives warned about the systemic risk Fannie and Freddie posed to the financial system but they were constantly thwarted by the left.  To this very day, the institutionalized “progressive” left denies the essential part Fannie and Freddie played in creating the housing bubble and causing the financial crisis.

Even at the height of the housing bubble, as the extent of the damage was being revealed, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd were still seeking to increase Fannie and Freddie’s role in a market already fettered by “progressive” big government interference.   On behalf of a well-heeled constituency in her congressional district, the liar Nancy Pelosi continued insisting Fannie and Freddie keep the housing bubble going, pushing for their insurance limits to be increased from $417,000 to $700,000 per loan.

Whether in the area of journalism or politics, once the facts are in members of the institutionalized “progressive” left prove themselves to be nothing more than bold faced, willfully deceitful psychopaths unfit to serve in the public arena.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/the-least-productive-congresswhy/

Campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki responded by saying: “We have nothing, no involvement, with any ads that are done by Priorities USA.  We don’t have any knowledge of the story of the family.”  Deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter stated: “I don’t know the facts about when Mr. Soptic’s wife got sick, or the facts about his health insurance.”

The problem for the Oval Office and its hope for re-election is; Soptic told the story on May 14, 2012, in a conference call hosted by the Obama campaign.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-camp-denies-knowledge-cancer-tale-told-may-195237581.html

This is from someone who condemned PAC attack ads running in favor of John Edwards during the 2008 campaign.  This is from a candidate who attacks Super PACs that are on Romney’s side, but never utters one peep about the PACs that are aligned with him, launching slanderous attacks against Romney on his behalf.

Apparently for “progressives”, civility remains a one way street.

Evidence shows how the White House’s assertion that political appointees were not involved in Energy Department loan decisions is a flat out lie.

Documents and sources knowledgeable of the situation show that disagreement between administration officials over approval of a $1.4 billion loan to another project was resolved by then-White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley.

Last summer the Oval Office occupier was briefed personally about a federal loan program aimed at helping clean-energy companies.   The briefing took place a mere two months before failure of the solar company Solyndra.  Solyndra was trumpeted by the White House as the poster child for solar power success in America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/energy-dept-e-mails-on-solyndra-provide-new-details-on-white-house-involvement/2012/08/08/668dc042-e162-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_story.html

It is easy to understand why Romney and his supporters justifiably lament the cheap, two-bit, Chicago thug style, dirty, lying, lowlife, bottoms scraping, scumbag, “progressive”, Alinsky tactics being used daily by the current White House occupant’s re-election campaign.  But to remain stuck in lament or defense mode plays right into their hands.

The best option is to stick to the truth and use the abundant available evidence to successfully portray the current administration and its “progressive” political allies for what they are.  So incredibly inept at governing that their own failed leadership and flagrant incompetence has forced them to lie, cheat and resort to character assassination in order to misrepresent themselves and their opponent.

Then paint the portrait of a viable alternative to failure: A proven leader who has achieved the American dream through pursuit of happiness.

Follow that with a series of questions.

Who would you rather have leading the United States of America; someone so inexperienced, inept and incompetent that Americans are resorting to Welfare, Disability and Food Stamps for survival?  Someone who must resort to blatantly dishonest tactics in an attempt to salvage their own failed, sagging political career?

Or would you rather have America led by a competent, successful and experienced businessman of good moral character who has plans to revitalize the American private sector economy and put Americans back to work?

America deserves better than having an inexperienced, incompetent, inept liar as President of the United States.

You deserve better.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/white-house-tells-lies-repeatedly-to-win/

Naturally, White House press secretary Jay Carney called Romney’s charges “blatantly dishonest.”  Carney’s misrepresentative spin continued: “This administration’s policy will strengthen the program by giving states the opportunity to employ more effective ways to help people get off welfare and into a job.”

For their part, a new Romney campaign ad accurately asserts that “Obama guts welfare reform” saying “Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check.”

http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2012/08/did-obama-gut-welfare-reform/

Of course, to White House “progressives” it does not matters that The Health and Human Services Department directive permits states to ask for waivers from the work requirement found in the existing welfare law.  They are going to attack, smear, invent and misrepresent every fact necessary to convince low information voters to cast their ballots against Romney, no matter what.

Coincidently, the current White House occupant is now blaming state and local governments, as well as Congress for the 14.1 percent black unemployment rate.

“There are a lot more things we could be doing. To get them done, we need cooperation of Congress. We got the payroll tax portion of [my American Jobs Act] done, but what we didn’t get done is the assistance I was proposing to the states to help them hire back teachers, firefighters, and first responders, because one of the weakest parts of this recovery has been state and local government hiring.  Given the weaknesses of the construction industry, the American Jobs Act proposed that we rebuild schools, roads, bridges, airport, and ports. That would provide small businesses with opportunities as contractors and vendors in this rebuilding process. Again, Congress needs to act.”  Obama stated.

Were George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, economic troubles in the Eurozone, the Arab Spring, a Japanese tsunami or ATMs and ticketing kiosks suddenly unavailable for blame?

Obama then took for granted a big part of his core constituency by saying “I’m not the president of black America. I’m the president of the United States of America.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-blames-state-and-local-governments-congress-141-percent-black-unemployment_649505.htmlhat

If one is to believe the pathological wealth redistributor in thief, he and his policies are never to blame for any of the existing malaise.  If only all those poor unfortunate souls who are not part of the “progressive” “intellectual elite” were capable of understanding.  Then his “progressive” holiness could explain to them how his policies are great…for the hundred thousandth time.

The idea that America is in deep financial trouble and that the current “progressive” administration is intentionally inflicting damage upon America and its economy is supported by the enactment of a seemingly endless string of “progressive” policies that run 180 degrees counter to how America and its economy are designed to work.

But one politician, no matter how radical, fringe, extreme, anti-American, “progressive” they are is solely to blame for the current situation.

Thanks to “go along to get along” “establishment” Republicans who abandoned Conservative principles and co-opted the “progressive” Democratic tactic of bringing home the bacon to buy votes; from January 2007 to January 2011 Republicans were in the legislative minority.  After the 2008 election, they were so outnumbered they were powerless to stop a “progressive” agenda bent on advancing an extreme, fringe, radical, anti-American wish list “progressives” spent decades concocting.

Then Americans woke up and elected Republicans of a more Conservative stripe to a majority in the House and reduced the “progressive” majority in the Senate.

But the Tea Party’s work is not done.  It is only now beginning.

“progressives” and their policies have been assailing America for over a century.  Based on what has happened since the 2010 election, expectations that more than 100 years of damage will be reversed in one election cycle are unrealistic.

For some Tea Party Americans, Mitt Romney might not be their first pick for president.  At least Romney is an American who knows first-hand how to achieve success in business.  Better still, Romney was not raised overseas by Communists.  This is a far cry from the current clueless affirmative action clown who between rounds of golf is working to “fundamentally transform” America into a Socialist democracy.  Besides, Romney’s campaign is showing a willingness to fight, something John McCain’s 2008 campaign failed to demonstrate.

Americans need to stay focused, remain diligent and work hard to elect Conservative Americans to every office possible.  It could be the White House, the U.S. Senate, Congress, Governor, Mayor or the local dog catcher.

Keep the faith and get out the American vote!

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/the-tea-partys-work-has-just-begun/

In a country long admired for its diligent protection of free speech it should be possible to logically discuss the plethora of clearly unconstitutional, vastly unpopular, criminally coerced, bribery stuffed, intimidation filled, votes bought, deals made and paid for legislation that amounts to an unmitigated assault upon American traditions, values and a way of life based on freedom of choice and individual liberty.  Given that anyone willing to speak against the institutionalized “progressive” leftist agenda is smeared, attacked, blocked on social media or otherwise suppressed, perhaps not.

But whether you look at the nationalization of American banks, the takeover of the U.S. auto industry, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court as a tax), the takeover of the college student loan industry, draconian EPA regulations or Cap and Trade initiatives, it all boils down to two words: “Economic justice.”

Does anyone in their right mind believe that the current radical fringe leftist “progressive” filled government is not playing favorites with student loan applications or will not play favorites with healthcare procedures and coverage?  Does anyone honestly believe that the current “progressive” Executive Branch will not continue to over-reach for power via Executive Order or through their appointments to the unelected, unaccountable regulatory bureaucracy?

Can you say reparations?  Can you say class warfare?  Can you say unable to run for reelection on their record?

Let the current Oval Office occupier in thief tell you in his own words:

• “One of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was that the civil rights movement became so court focused, I think, there was a tendency to lose track of the political and organizing activities on the ground that are able to bring about the coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change.”

That is Marxism, plain and simple.  But “progressives” know full well that the majority of Americans would never accept Marxism, Socialism or Communism if they were honest about their agenda.  Americans are equally unlikely to accept redistribution of wealth at face value.  Witness the public outcry that followed the occupier’s now infamous 2008 campaign encounter with “Joe the plumber”.

What is a “progressive” Marxist to do?

Make the Marxist agenda sound like a moral issue to which good, God fearing, charitable Americans will subscribe.  Just like magic Marxism, Socialism, Communism and redistribution of wealth becomes “economic justice”.

Do not fall for persistent fringe left “progressive” attempts to redefine language through the smoke and mirror tricks of political correctness.  DO NOT BE FOOLED.

“Economic justice” = Forced redistribution of wealth, with hostility towards individual property rights, cloaked in a veneer of morality.

Where the majority of Americans are from, that is known as lying, cheating and stealing.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/the-economic-justice-lie/

Never mind that the government-managed bankruptcy violated hundreds of years of precedent by stealing equity from secured investors and redistributing it to the United Auto Workers, staunch “progressive” Democratic supporters.  Forget that a majority of the auto dealerships that were closed as a result of “progressive” business mismanagement were owned by Conservative Republican small business owners.

Speaking of business, jobless claims rose again.  For the week ended July 28^th, initial jobless claims increased by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 365,000.  In a now familiar pattern that has persisted since the current administration assumed stewardship over the economy, July 21 week ended claims were revised upwards from the initially reported 353,000 to 357,000.

According to the White House and their “progressive” co-operatives, underperforming jobless numbers would vastly improve if only those selfish small business owners would “pay their fair share”.  Never mind that small businesses are under assault from government mandated regulatory obligations imposed by unaccountable bureaucracies.  Big government “progressive” control freaks will never comprehend how small businesses are far less likely to hire new workers when a disproportionate amount of their limited funds are tied up in accounting and legal fees forced upon them by regulatory dictates.

Not surprisingly, poor economic reports caused stocks on Wall Street to drop, with the Dow and S&P averages showing the biggest single-day drops since late June.  Reports showed both the Dow and S&P down by nearly one percent.

But not to worry, a growing “progressive” big government has determined that for America the best way to solve all of these economic problems is to have said “progressive” big government take over one sixth of the economy by seizing control of the national healthcare system.  A tax that “progressives” refuse to call a tax imposed on “free” individual American citizens for refusing to comply with a “progressive” big government mandate to buy a commodity will be enforced by an IRS that has paid out billions of dollars in fraudulent refunds.  In a report issued on Thursday, the IRS inspector general said that identity thieves are filing bogus returns and could collect $21 billion over the next five years.

Having the government in control of their healthcare system should be of minor concern to American voters.  With trillions of dollars being tossed around more freely than Frisbees on a French Riviera beach, knowledge that 7,000 healthcare providers already paid over $6 billion by Medicaid not paying federal taxes to the tune of nearly $800 million should be considered nothing more than a small accounting error.  What’s a mere $800 million among friends?

It isn’t like partisan politics could interfere with making sound judgments.

That is unless “progressives” are making those decisions.

Early in his presidential campaign back in July 2007, then candidate Barrack Hussein Obama said: “The least employers can do when they’re anticipating layoffs is to let workers know they’re going to be out of a job and a paycheck with enough time to plan for their future.”  Of course, now that having certain key employers do exactly that would threaten his re-election aspirations, he is against it.

Since passage of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, employers with one hundred or more workers are required to give employees a sixty day notice of pending mass layoffs or plant closings.  With the jobs of up to one million U.S. defense contractor workers threatened by looming budget cuts at the Defense Department, those contractors should be sending layoff notices to their workers just a few days before the upcoming Nov. 6 election.  The administration said that those federal contractors do not need to warn their employees about pending mass layoffs or plant closings because the budget cuts slated to begin Jan. 2 are “still speculative.”

Can you say John Kerry?  He was for it before he was against it too, right?

But Americans really should not sweat the small stuff.  Should it matter that thanks to business hostile policies of “progressive” politicians, those self-imagined self-appointed members of the intellectual elite, the American economy is crumbling before their eyes?  After all, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to make statements like: “Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the way for world justice and freedom”?

Think about it.  What difference will the state of the economy make if a nuclear armed Iran starts a nuclear world war that annihilates the entire planet?

Is there any truth to the rumor that George Soros is speculating untold billions of his ill-gotten gains on cockroach futures?

Is this the way Americans wants their country governed?

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/is-this-any-way-to-govern/

The White House’s agenda is disastrous for economic growth and stability. Much of what the Oval Office occupier calls “tax cuts” are rewards for participating in an unproven, inefficient, unreliable “green energy” fairy tale.  To a large degree “green energy” has proven to be nothing more than a thinly veiled means of redistributing wealth from taxpayers to the administration’s “progressive” political cronies.

Despite misinformation coming from the White House, faithfully parroted by their willfully complicit co-conspirators within the “progressive” Party Pravda, a one-time annual tax credit of $5,000 to hire an employee that will cost a business far more in salary and benefits is not a tax cut.

When “properly” spun by the misleader in chief, reductions in the payroll tax for working people sound good, but in reality are further defunding the nearly bankrupt Social Security Ponzi scheme.

The government loaned hundreds of billions of dollars to banks. In exchange for those billions the government received preferred shares of stock in those banks. Holders of preferred stock are first in line for any dividends paid to shareholders. Since the banks must pay the government back, holders of common stock will be receiving no dividends. Everyday investors will not buy stock in those banks; instead they will sell their shares in order to use that capital on investments that pay a dividend. This is de facto nationalization of the banking system.

Stress testing banks requires them to maintain balance sheets that are deemed “acceptable” by unelected, unaccountable government regulatory bureaucrats.  In order to maintain those balances, banks are reluctant to lend money to small businesses, many of which are dependent on small loans from local banks to compensate for periodic income shortfalls experienced during normal business cycles.

If re-elected, the current White House occupant will continue to use class warfare as an excuse to reduce and eliminate taxes on political groups inclined to elect proponents of nanny state big government programs.  As envisioned by “progressives”, eventually a majority of Americans will no longer pay any taxes. Meanwhile, the administration will increase the tax burden on successful businesses and individuals; the rich who do not pay “their fair share”.  The majority of people will not care how high tax rates rise.  Since they will no longer be paying taxes, higher tax rates will not affect them.  As businesses fail under the added tax burdens, more people will be laid off and require government assistance.  This will create a huge underclass of Americans dependent upon government for survival who will exist under government control.  This is not coincidental.

Corporations don’t pay taxes. They pass the cost of those taxes on to consumers. The elimination of corporate taxes will lower the cost of goods to consumers and incentivize investments by individuals and investment groups. It will also eliminate the need for corporations to finance Congressional lobbying in pursuit of more favorable tax structures or the creation of additional tax loopholes.

A cut in business tax rates will leave more money in the hands of businesses that succeed, and help those businesses grow through the reinvestment of profit. A growing business has a need to hire new employees. Growing companies that are hiring workers instead of letting people go make employees more secure in their own economic future and thus more likely to engage in consumer spending.

A cut in personal income tax rates will help stimulate consumer spending, thus improving the demand side of the economic equation without cumbersome, inefficient, wasteful government spending that requires borrowing with interest or printing money, which fuels inflation.

It is abundantly clear which direction should be taken by the United States.  Will America recover by electing a successful businessman?  Or will the U.S. continue lurching “forward” in fits and starts until it collapses under the “stewardship” of an unqualified community organizer with a sketchy, predominantly hidden past who’s only business experience prior to seizing power was one real estate deal between himself and a convicted felon?

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/government-or-business/

Attacks originating from the White House such as the “You didn’t build that” remark are certainly not instilling confidence among entrepreneurs.  2010 Census figures reveal that from 2008-2010 200,000 small businesses shut their doors.  Three million jobs were lost when those companies closed up shop.

Americans cut spending as U.S. economic growth from April through June slowed to a crawl at an annual rate of 1.5 percent.  The slowdown indicates that the economy may be stalling three years into a sluggish, mostly jobless recovery that began when the last recession technically ended.

A growth rate of 2 percent or less does nothing to lower unemployment rates, which remained stuck at 8.2 percent last month.  According to most economic experts, growth is not expected to increase much in the second half of 2012, spurring fears of another recession.  Few economists believe the U.S. economy will strengthen anytime soon.

A less than glowing corporate earnings report, continued financial troubles in Europe and a looming budget crisis in the U.S. are all expected to contribute to further reductions in business investment and contribute to a possible economic downturn.

Drawing upon his business experience, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has plans to restore jobs in America within the private sector.  He is in favor of increased domestic energy production, a policy that will stimulate economic growth and reduce energy costs for all Americans.  Romney also favors taking a stronger stance towards China on matters of trade and currency manipulation.  He has repeatedly pledged to repeal and replace obamatax, also known by the misnomer: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; a reversal of that policy will disperse the clouds of doubt and uncertainty currently inhibiting job creation, business growth and capital investment.

With a successful businessman in the White House and a legislature composed of business friendly Representatives and Senators, prospects for an American economic recovery will brighten immediately.  Investors in America and especially Europe, where socialist tax assaults continue, will once again be inclined and incentivized to invest in America.

If you are one of the millions of American workers who have suffered long term unemployment or underemployment as a result of the failed “progressive” economic policies of the current administration and its “progressive” cohorts take heart, the first rays of the new dawn are just over the horizon.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/before-the-dawn/

“Here are some of the new taxes you’re going to have to pay to pay for Obamacare:

•A 3.8% surtax on “investment income” when your adjusted gross income is more than $200,000 ($250,000 for joint-filers). What is “investment income?” Dividends, interest, rent, capital gains, annuities, house sales, partnerships, etc. Taxes on dividends will rise from 15% to 18.8%–if Congress extends the Bush tax cuts. If Congress does not extend the Bush tax cuts, taxes on dividends will rise from 15% to a shocking 43.8%. (WSJ)

•A 0.9% surtax on Medicare taxes for those making $200,000 or more ($250,000 joint). You already pay Medicare tax of 1.45%, and your employer pays another 1.45% for you (unless you’re self-employed, in which case you pay the whole 2.9% yourself). Next year, your Medicare bill will be 2.35%. (WSJ)

•Flexible Spending Account contributions will be capped at $2,500. Currently, there is no tax-related limit on how much you can set aside pre-tax to pay for medical expenses. Next year, there will be. If you have been socking away, say, $10,000 in your FSA to pay medical bills, you’ll have to cut that to $2,500. (ATR.org)

•The itemized-deduction hurdle for medical expenses is going up to 10% of adjusted gross income. Right now, any medical expenses over 7.5% of AGI are deductible. Next year, that hurdle will be 10%. (ATR.org)

•The penalty on non-medical withdrawals from Healthcare Savings Accounts is now 20% instead of 10%. That’s twice the penalty that applies to annuities, IRAs, and other tax-free vehicles. (ATR.org)

•A tax of 10% on indoor tanning services. This has been in place for two years, since the summer of 2010. (ATR.org)

•A 40% tax on “Cadillac Health Care Plans” starting in 2018.Those whose employers pay for all or most of comprehensive healthcare plans (costing $10,200 for an individual or $27,500 for families) will have to pay a 40% tax on the amount their employer pays. The 2018 start date is said to have been a gift to unions, which often have comprehensive plans. (ATR.org)

•A”Medicine Cabinet Tax” that eliminates the ability to pay for over-the-counter medicines from a pre-tax Flexible Spending Account. This started in January 2011. (ATR.org)

•A “penalty” tax for those who don’t buy health insurance. This will phase in from 2014-2016. It will range from $695 per person to about $4,700 per person, depending on your income. (More details here.)

•A tax on medical devices costing more than $100.  Starting in 2013, medical device manufacturers will have to pay a 2.3% excise tax on medical equipment. This is expected to raise the cost of medical procedures. (Breitbart.com)

So those are some of the new taxes you’ll be paying that will help pay for Obamacare.

Any big ones I’ve missed?

Note that these taxes are both “progressive” (aimed at rich people) and “regressive” (aimed at the middle class and poor people). The big ones–the 3.8% investment income hike and the Medicare tax increase–only hit you if you’re making more than $200,000 a year. The rest hit you no matter how much you’re making.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-new-obamacare-taxes-2012-7

Let “progressive” useful idiots attack, smear and worship their false idol while defending him with their empty, hateful rhetoric.

Facts trump rhetoric and hero worship every time.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/new-taxes-youre-going-to-pay-to-fund-obamacare/

Meanwhile, factory activity fell shy of expectations held by economic experts and contracted for a third straight month.  The new orders index is currently minus 6.9.  A reading below zero indicates contraction.  Two consecutive quarters of economic contraction means that after spending $878 billion taxpayer dollars on government “stimulus”, the U.S. economy will experience a double dip recession.  Of course “progressives” will insist the reason the “stimulus” spending failed is because the government did not spend enough.

Over 1.5 million older Americans have lost their homes, while millions more are in danger of losing theirs due to the unsolved, ongoing national housing crisis.  About 3.5 million older homeowners’ mortgages are underwater.  The “progressive” solution to problems caused by “progressive” government interference in the U.S. housing market?  Have the government refinance underwater mortgages.  Why not?  The U.S. debt is only $15,884,155,929,632.05 and climbing rapidly.  America has money to burn.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Home sales dropped by 5.4% in June to an adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million homes, the fewest since October 2011.  Despite 30-year fixed mortgage rates being the lowest since the 1950s, potential buyers are having difficulty qualifying for loans due to the weakening job market.  Without vigorous job growth, consumers may continue delaying the purchase of new homes.  Why is it the White House jobs panel has not met in six months?  Perhaps having such a meeting would cut into the current Oval Office occupant’s golf, fundraising and campaign appearance time.

The outlook for consumers is not good.  Driven by corn prices reaching near record highs due to drought in the Midwest, grocery bills will continue to rise.  Since corn and corn syrup are used in 75% of the products found in supermarkets, shoppers can plan on paying higher grocery bills.

How long will it be before for a “progressive” Senator, Representative or White House czar calls for the use of more corn in ethanol production?

Why be bothered with the population’s food supply when there is a planet to be saved from carbon gas.  Never mind that more “greenhouse gasses” are belched by volcanoes every year than the combined amount produced by humans since civilization began.  Besides, the people most likely to starve to death probably fit into one of the “progressive’s” genetically inferior categories anyway.

Speaking of alternative fuels, the administration’s taxpayer funded capital investments in “green energy” are going so well that the Amonix solar manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas closed after receiving $20 million in federal subsidies.  The announcement came only14 months after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid endorsed the plant’s opening by heralding solar energy in Nevada, comparing it to Saudi Arabian oil.

On the foreign policy front, the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the U.S. government while they seize power in Egypt and Libya.  Israel and Iran are rattling sabers over the Islamist government’s pursuit of nukes and the prospects of an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Russia and China joined forces to veto sanctions on Syria in a UN Security Council vote.  Afterwards, the White House called Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main international supporter, about the deteriorating Syrian situation.  Not surprisingly, that call ended with the two of them divided over how to move forward.

This is what is known as: Not peace through strength.

Don’t worry.  The White House saved the day by announcing that the USDA and Mexico have decided to work cooperatively in promoting American food assistance programs, including food stamps, to Mexican Americans, nationals and migrants living in America.

How is this “progressive” hope and change deal working out for you?

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/hows-that-progressive-deal-working-out-for-you/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/jul/16/trump-romney-demand-obamas-college-records/

Never mind that the current White House occupant signed an Executive Order hiding every last one of his personal documents from public view on his first day in office.  For “the most transparent administration in history”, transparency is meant for everyone else, not themselves.

In typical “progressive” do as I say, not as I do fashion, the White House has launched repeated attacks on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee over questions about the timing of his departure from private equity firm Bain Capital.  One re-election campaign spokeswoman suggested that Romney possibly committed a felony.  The White House and fellow “progressive” Democrats keep insisting that companies filed for bankruptcy or shipped jobs overseas under Romney’s Bain leadership and that he only wants to help fellow millionaires, not working people.  Romney has maintained he is not responsible for many of those decisions because they took place after he took a leave of absence in February 1999 to oversee the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games.  According to recently released documents, regulatory filings show that Romney was still in charge of Bain through 2002.  However, Bain officials, including Democrats, say that he was not involved with the company’s day-to-day operations during that time.

The White House and other “progressives” within the Democratic Party are also criticizing Romney for setting up offshore bank accounts and refusing to release additional information concerning his personal fortune, estimated to be as much as $250 million.

“John McCain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. John Kerry ran for president, and his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. Somehow this wasn’t an issue.  The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more, more things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try and make a mountain out of and distort and to be dishonest about.” Romney countered in a television interview.

“progressives” keep insisting that Romney’s “secrecy” goes to the “trust factor”.  When it comes to secrecy and the trust factor, how on earth can policy wonks who insist on hiding the Oval Office occupant’s entire past claim even a glimpse of, much less a hold on the moral high ground?  Despite their horrendously duplicitous nature, “progressives” need to learn that trust must be a two way street.

Why was the “affordable care act” passed without Congress reading it first?

Why weren’t the New Black Panthers prosecuted for voter intimidation that was clearly documented?

Why did the NLRB sue Boeing?

Why has the administration stifled the production of cheap energy through EPA regulations and denial of permits?

Why has the administration abandoned national border security while suing States attempting to enforce federal law and granting blanket protection from prosecution for breaking immigration laws to millions of illegal aliens?

Why is the administration suing States that passed Voter ID laws intended solely to protect the integrity of America’s voting process?

Why has the counting of American votes in the November 2012 election been outsourced to a Spanish company?

Why does the White House continue insisting that average everyday Americans are not being taxed by the “affordable care act” when enforcement of the “penalty” falls to the IRS?

When did the IRS suddenly leave the Department of Treasury and move to the Department of Health and Human Services?

Why did so many millions of taxpayer dollars go to “green energy” companies whose executives “just happened” to have been big time “progressive” bundlers for the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign?

Where is the justification for using Executive Privilege to hide the truth about Operation Fast and Furious which resulted in the murder of American Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?

The White House calling for transparency from the Mitt Romney campaign would be perfectly fine were they practicing what they preach.  They are not.  “The most transparent administration in history” has practiced anything but transparency.  Until they do, they should be prepared to take their lumps.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/one-way-transparency/

“progressives” feel a compulsive obsessive need to force Americans into accepting their “green energy” fantasy. Three plus years of actions taken by the current administration and fellow “progressives” show a willingness to achieve this end at all costs, come what may. Stiffer standards on auto emissions and mileage, crushing EPA regulations on energy providers, opposing development of domestic energy resources, copious deficit spending on inefficient and noncompetitive solar, wind, tide and bio-fuel technologies litter the landscape of the White House’s failed energy policy.

While such “progressive” measures theoretically “promote” development of “green” energies, they dictate a highly impatient, frantic pace that is crippling the American economy at a time of tremendous fragility. They force the issue at the worst possible time.  During a stubborn, recovery resistant recession that is quite possibly teetering on the brink of a full-blown depression.

America’s public and industrial infrastructures are based on the use of petroleum, natural gas and coal, as well as limited nuclear power. Nearly every vehicle that is driven on American roads burns gasoline or diesel fuel. Public transportation relies on fossil fuels as well. Natural gas, heating oil and coal are used in furnaces to heat homes and places of business. Coal and nuclear power generate electricity, which powers countless devices; the uses of which are taken for granted every day. Coal, natural gas and petroleum products power American’s industrial complex, the base of the economic engine. America’s economy depends heavily on existing energy. The methods of providing and consuming energy are deeply ingrained into American business, industry, home life and recreation.

Expecting to change the methods of powering a society of over 300 million people overnight is impractical. It will take time to finish such a task. More time than most of the general public realizes. While whatever conversions that make sense are taking place, what energy is going power manufacturing, delivering and installing windmills, solar panels, turbines, generators and the power grid needed to provide “green” energy to the public? Will it be the “green” energy that is still under development? No. The energy that’s going to be used will be traditional fuels.

Why does America continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign energy while there is undeveloped energy in its own country? Why doesn’t America keep those billions of dollars at home, in its own cash starved economy?

At a time when millions of Americans are looking for work and its economy is starving for liquid capital, why doesn’t America take advantage of its own wealth of natural resources? Why aren’t Americans drilling for oil and natural gas or digging for coal? Why aren’t people working building refineries and power plants? Why aren’t people delivering gas, coal and natural gas to consumers? How many peripheral jobs will be created in the process? For every new oil well, power plant, refinery or mine there will be new roads built, followed by restaurants, stores and housing. All generated by the only force capable of powering America’s economic recovery: the private sector.

In the interest of national security and job creation, America should put Americans back to work delivering American energy to Americans. This is the best way to become energy independent. Forcing “green energy” on America overnight will only lead to economic destruction.

http://mjfellright.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/american-energy-means-american-recovery/