November 1st, 2011 by John Feehery
According to the United Nations, the 7 billionth person came into the world the other day.
I was wondering why it felt kind of crowded around here.
The 1 billionth person arrived when Thomas Jefferson was president. No. 2 billion came when Calvin Coolidge was president, the 3 billionth when Dwight Eisenhower was president, the 4 billionth when Nixon was getting impeached, the 5 billionth when Reagan was in his second term, the 6 billionth when Clinton was in his second term, and now Obama is president with No. 7 billion.
If it seems like the pace is picking up, well, you are right. At this rate, we will hit 10 billion by 2050.
Most of the growth is occurring in Asia, Africa and South America. The United States and Europe are expected to stay fairly flat in their population growth, but that doesn’t mean that Europeans and Americans won’t be profoundly affected by the population explosion in other parts of the globe.
The CIA and the Defense Department planners are already thinking through the implications of this population boom. Politicians need to follow suit. Read more...
Tags: 7 billionth person, Africa, Asia, CIA, Defense Department, Europe, free-market, market capitalism, nited Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, Obama, population growth, Social Security, South America, Thomas Jefferson, Transportation infrastructure, United Nations, United States, Water security
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Food, Foreign Relations, Government, History, Immigration, Politics, bad news, health care, national security, poverty, spending, taxes | No Comments »
October 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
The rich are different than you and me.
And it isn’t only that they have more money.
The rich have come under attack recently, so I decided to take a look at who is really, really rich.
And what I found was a group of people who have changed our world profoundly.
Think of the Walton family, responsible for Walmart.
The Mars family, responsible for all of that Halloween candy.
Bill Gates and the dearly departed Steve Jobs, who revolutionized how we work, how we interact, how we live.
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, and the Google guys are at the top too.
There is Warren Buffett, a role-model for all the savvy investors.
And at both ends of the political spectrum, you have controversial figures like George Soros and the Koch brothers who made their money because they worked hard and were smarter than their competitors.
These folks have collectively revolutionized modern society. They had vision, creativity, persistence, and an innate toughness to get where they got.
So why should we begrudge them their wealth? Why should we talk them down and try to take their hard-earned money away from them? Read more...
Tags: Babe Ruth, Bill Gates, debt crisis, Facebook, George Soros, google, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, the Koch brothers, The Mars family, The rich, the Walton family, Walmart, Warren Buffett
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Presidential election, Social Media, Theory, spending, taxes | 3 Comments »
October 21st, 2011 by John Feehery
Marco Rubio
Chris Matthews thought he would get me with his question on Marco Rubio. He asked me, breaking news style, what I thought about the revelations that Rubio’s family fled Cuba two whole years before Castro came to power.
I didn’t scratch my head on camera, but I did so in my mind.
What the hell is the big deal, I thought.
Not knowing a thing about this “breaking story”, I didn’t give much of an answer. I mumbled something about Rubio being a rising star in the party and then the segment ended.
But having read the story this morning, I have a better sense of what is going on here.
The Democrats are desperately afraid that Mitt Romney is going to pick Rubio to be his Vice Presidential candidate, and they are getting the Washington Post to do its bidding.
I don’t know if Romney is going to pick Rubio and I don’t know if Rubio would accept such an offer (he says he won’t), but I do know that the R and R ticket would spell the doom of Mr. Obama and his ill-fated administration. Read more...
Tags: Castro, Chris Matthews, Democrats, Hispanic Vote, illegal immigrants, immigration bill, Marco Rubio, Medicaid, Mitt Romney, Republican, Rubio, the American dream, the Obama Administration, Vice Presidential candidate, Washington Post, welfare
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Foreign Relations, GOP, Government, Immigration, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, Unemployment, bad news, election, medicare, national security, poverty, spending, taxes, welfare | 2 Comments »
October 20th, 2011 by John Feehery
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday: “It’s very clear that private sector jobs have been doing just fine, it’s the public sector jobs where we’ve lost huge numbers, and that’s what this legislation is all about.”
He was talking about his plan to give more money to states so they can give more money to teachers unions and public safety unions.
Joe Biden breathlessly said yesterday that if you didn’t support this plan, the chances that you might get raped (if you are a woman) or held up at gunpoint (if you run a 7-11) will go up dramatically. He said yesterday in Washington:
“In many cities, the result has been — and it’s not unique — murder rates are up, robberies are up, rapes are up and folks, there’s a simple reason for it. There’s been a perfect storm out there — these God-awful Ponzi schemes that the last outfit allowed Wall Street to engage in resulted in this gigantic collapse of the financial industry. Housing — the bottom fell out. Foreclosures increased, particularly in poorer neighborhoods. Abandoned homes are created. Drug lords move in. Arson increases. Budgets fall because the property taxes fall. Cops and firefighters get laid off. Response times increase from five minutes to 30 minutes, and people die, and people’s homes burn to the ground.” Read more...
Tags: Bloomberg New, Economy, Federal employees, foreclosures, gigantic collapse of the financial industry, Joe Biden, Kevin Zeese, Politics, Ponzi schemes, President’s jobs plan, private sector, private sector jobs, Prosperity Agenda, public safety unions, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Silicon Valley, teachers unions, Wall Street
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, Media, Politics, Promises, Unemployment, bad news, corruption, election, housing crisis, poverty, spending, taxes | 1 Comment »
October 14th, 2011 by John Feehery
Never assume.
I usually get in trouble when I make assumptions and then challenge them.
I have been assuming for some time that the Republicans will easily beat Barack Hussein Obama.
I have been assuming that for some very good reasons.
For example, Obama is just not a very good President. He doesn’t have a clue how the private market place works. He is not much of a leader. His neo-Marxist philosophy is all out of step with our free-market system.
Even if you do like the President personally, it is still hard to make the case that he deserves to be re-hired. The economy is in terrible shape. Our country is “this close” to going completely broke. He has failed to take on entitlements in any serious way.
He has had some successes in the war on terror, but unfortunately for him, this election won’t hinge on Mr. Obama’s ability to give the order to kill terrorists.
That is what we all know, and that is why he is cracking 50% in his disapproval ratings.
But the Republicans can still screw this up. Here are a few ways BHO could still win: Read more...
Tags: 9-9-9 plan, afghanistan, American economy, Barack Hussein Obama, Bill Clinton, Dodd-Frank regulations, economic growth, Freedom Works, Hermann Cain, Hispanic voters, Immigration, Libertarian, Matt Kibbe, Mitt Romney, neo-Marxist philosophy, Obamacare, Republicans, Rick Perry, Super Pacs, Tea Party, Unemployment
Posted in GOP, Government, Politics, Presidential election, Theory, election, spending, taxes | No Comments »
October 13th, 2011 by John Feehery
Well, that was quick.
Yesterday, as I drove through Washington’s streets, all I saw was a bunch of traffic, made worse by the 30 rabble-rousers who occupied a half-block in downtown D.C.
Today, dozens of South Korean flags were fluttering in the pouring rain.
The President of South Korea is in town, meeting with Barack Obama and addressing a joint session of Congress.
Apparently, this visit constituted an important enough deadline to compel Congress to finally act on a free trade agreement with one of our best Asian allies.
The House and Senate usually only work this quickly together when they pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open.
South Korea wasn’t the only trade pact passed in a New York minute yesterday. So were the Colombia and Panama Free Trade agreements.
If you like NAFTA, you will love this trio of trade pacts.
If you don’t like NAFTA, you will be despondent.
The big business and the agriculture sectors love free trade. Free trade makes it easier for our companies to sell their products at a lower price to more customers and that is something that makes farmers and multi-national CEO’s very happy. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, Bush administration, Colombia Free Trade agreements, Congress, Free Trade, House and Senate, Mitt Romney, NAFTA, Occupy Wall Street, Panama Free Trade agreements, President of South Korea, South Korean, Tea Party, White House
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Foreign Relations, Government, Politics, Presidential election, Theory, bad news, spending, taxes | No Comments »
October 12th, 2011 by John Feehery
Dana Milbank had a funny story in the Post today about the pathetic protest movement that has gripped (well, gripped might be a strong word), Washington:
Attempting to emulate the Occupy Wall Street protests, Washington activists and some out-of-town guests set themselves the lofty goal of occupying the Hart Senate Office Building. “We are there to shut the place down!” organizer David Swanson told his small band of followers.
But how to do this with only a few dozen demonstrators? Well, Swanson said, they could push all the buttons on the elevators — the way naughty children sometimes do in apartment buildings. “There are people who are wanting to go into the elevators and fill them and not get out and push all the buttons,” he said. “If you like that, do it.”
Forcing Senate staff to take the stairs is a pretty interesting way to spark rebellion in the streets.
E.J. Dionne earlier this month complained that the left needed its own version of the Tea Part Movement.
Hey, E.J., you can have ours. We are done with it.
If ever there was a time for some real good protests, now is the time. Read more...
Tags: Dana Milbank, E.J. Dionne, local and federal governments, state, taxes, Tea Part movement, Unemployment, wall street protests
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Theory, Unemployment, bad news, spending, taxes, welfare | No Comments »
October 11th, 2011 by John Feehery
President Obama has made taxing the rich the centerpiece of his reelection campaign. He talks incessantly about it. It is a key part of his jobs package. So far, an apt summary of the Obama presidency might very well be: “He killed Osama bin Laden and he really, really wanted to tax the rich.”
The President is no dummy. He reads polls like any other politician, and he knows that the taxing-the-rich meme polls well. Most polls show about 70 percent of all Americans supporting higher taxes on wealthier Americans.
In fact, polls show that even wealthier Americans support higher taxes on wealthier Americans. One commissioned by American Express showed that nearly two-thirds of voters making more than $100,0000 support raising taxes on rich people. A CBS poll shows that 65 percent of voters specifically supported a millionaire’s tax, with only 30 percent opposing it.
You would think that the President would be making up some ground with voters because of his pleas to raise taxes on those rich suckers, but the more Obama attacks the rich, the more his poll numbers go down.
Why is that? Here are a few reasons: Read more...
Tags: American Express, Americans, Franklin D. Roosevelt, higher taxes, new tax increases, Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Politics, presential election, President Obama, reelection campaign, tax hikes, taxes, taxing the rich
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, Politics, Presidential election, Promises, bad news, election, spending, taxes | 1 Comment »
October 7th, 2011 by John Feehery
The Senate majority leader moved last night to cut off republican amendments to a Chinese currency bill, calling the amendments dilatory. In doing so, he changed Senate rules and caused a firestorm in the halls of the world’s greatest debating society (or so it thinks of itself).
I was in the Senate press gallery as this kerfluffle was unfolding, drinking beer at a going away party for Carl Hulse, the New York Times reporter who is moving off the hill beat and up the management chain at the old gray lady.
Had I been a Senate staffer, I probably would have really cared about this break in precedent, but I am now a civilian, and like most Americans, I now look upon the Senate as a vast wasteland of wasted opportunity, which leads me not to anger, but to ennui.
The upper body, as some call it, has put the fun in dysfunction. Well, not really. There is nothing fun about it. It hasn’t passed a budget in two years, it hasn’t passed an appropriations bill all year, it won’t pass a jobs bill that will actually create jobs, and right now, it doesn’t look good for any progress on the Super Committee, which was created precisely because the Senate is so completely dysfunctional. Read more...
Tags: Carl Hulse, Congress, House of Representatives, jobs bill, Politics, Senate Majority Leader, super committee, The American people, the Senate
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Theory, spending, taxes | 1 Comment »
October 6th, 2011 by John Feehery
I had a chance lunch with the founder of Crate and Barrel yesterday at the Washington Ideas Forum. Gordon Segal asked if the empty seat at my small table was open, and me, having no idea who Gordon Segal is, said sure.
He told me if he was from Chicago, and I immediately (in my usually obnoxious straightforward way) asked him if he was a Cub or White Sox fan.
I noticed that his name tag said Crate and Barrel, and asked him about it. Yep, he said, he founded the company with his wife in 1962 with one other employee. They were newlyweds who had travled through Europe in 1961, and they noticed all the neat furniture stores over there that would have looked cool in American living rooms. The Crate and Barrel name comes from the crates and barrels from which all of their products arrived, initially from European countries, and now from all over the world. Read more...
Tags: Aspen Institute, Atlantic Magazine, Bill Daley, Conservatives, Crate and Barrel, David Bradley, Dodd-Frank, Gordon Segal, Government, Marco Rubio, spending, Tom Brokaw, Washington Ideas Forum
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Politics, Theory, bad news, housing crisis, spending | No Comments »
According to the United Nations, the 7 billionth person came into the world the other day.
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