Daily Readings 09-28-2012
Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book
Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.
In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.
Jerry Brown Tells Californians They Can ‘Eat High Speed Rail’
The numbers reveal stark problems for America’s foremost state: 8 of the top 10 worst foreclosure and unemployment areas in the nation, the 3rd highest unemployment rate in the country and underemployment above 20%. California has perennial budget deficits that exceed the size of the overall budgets of more than 20 states. Worse yet, California has unfunded state and local government pension and medical liabilities that are said to exceed $650 billion or over 650% of its income.
US Postal Service to default on second $5B payment
The U.S. Postal Service, on the brink of default on a second multibillion-dollar payment it can’t afford to pay, is sounding a new cautionary note that having squeezed out all the cost savings within its power, the mail agency’s viability now lies almost entirely with Congress.
In an interview, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the mail agency will be forced to miss the $5.6 billion payment due to the Treasury on Sunday, its second default in as many months. Congress has left Washington until after the November elections, without approving a postal fix.
President Barack Obama warns against embarrassing China on trade complaints
President Barack Obama, addressing the increasing concerns over China’s alleged currency manipulation and other foreign trade violations, said this week that the United States must push back against unfair practices but not “go out of our way to embarrass” the country.
Doing so would risk “an all-out trade war,” Obama told The Plain Dealer in an exclusive interview.
Where do “Obama phones” come from?
This video of an Obama supporter bragging about having an “Obama phone” has gone viral on the web, but where do these “free cell phones” come from?
The program is called Lifeline, established in 1984, originally created to subsidize landline phone service for low income Americans, funded by government-collected telecommunication fees, paid by consumers.
In 2008, the program was expanded to support cell phones which quickly escalated the cost of the program. In 2008 the program cost $772 million, but by 2011 it cost $1.6 billion
CEOs now see gloomy third quarter, drop growth expectations
Top executives and small-business owners polled by the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Federation of Independent Business, and chief financial officers surveyed by the management firm Deloitte pointed to uncertainty posed by new regulations, shaky demand overseas and the “fiscal cliff” facing the federal government as prime reasons keeping companies from investing and hiring at a faster pace.
Student debt hits record 1 in 5 U.S. households
With college enrollment growing, student debt has stretched to a record number of U.S. households — nearly 1 in 5 — with the biggest burdens falling on the young and poor.
The analysis by the Pew Research Center found that 22.4 million households, or 19 percent, had college debt in 2010. That is double the share in 1989, and up from 15 percent in 2007, just prior to the recession — representing the biggest three-year increase in student debt in more than two decades.
2001 Obama WBEZ Interview Redistribution Wealth Warren Court
Democrat Senate Hopeful Warren Exposed As Complete Fraud
Daily Readings 09-28-2012,On top of fraudulently claiming minority Indian status without any documented ancestry, the Harvard law professor has now been busted practicing law in Massachusetts without a state license.
Worse, her client list includes the type of corporations that Ms. Populist has demonized on the campaign trail as greedy polluters and exploiters of the “little guy.”
Turns out working-class champion Warren in 1995 hired herself out as a legal gun for LTV Steel to help the conglomerate fight thousands of retired coal miners who wanted more health and pension benefits, the Boston Herald says. She pocketed a cool $10,000 in the case. Records show in 2009 she also defended insurance giant Travelers against asbestos victims.
