Manipulation by Democrats

The average benefit for food stamp recipients is currently $113.41 per month. The food stamp program was re-named SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for politically correct purposes, but the “assistance” it provides is still not intended to be the only means of paying for food. Otherwise, the “A” (for Assistance) in SNAP would not be there.

Apparently, 26 Democrats in Congress are too dense to understand that or are just putting on a show in the media by taking what is being called the “SNAP Challenge” in order to protest a Farm Bill that, if passed, will reduce food stamp benefits. (Why a “Farm Bill” is dealing with food stamps is a whole different problem.) This SNAP Challenge is to live off of $4.50 per day for food to show how difficult that is, eliciting sympathy for keeping and/or increasing the current food stamp benefit.

Food stamps were never intended to be used in that manner, but idealism is blind to reality. This challenge involves spending $4.50 per day instead of buying in quantity like those actually receiving food stamps would do. It is a transparent ploy to make things seem as bad as possible. Would you buy just one apple or one hot dog per day if you actually had to subsist on food stamps? Would you buy them from an “organic” food store where prices are exorbitant? Would you buy pre-packaged, individually wrapped cheese slices? Would you buy just one apple?

The media, of course, loves this SNAP challenge and treats it as if it is a display of sensitivity in a creative, witty way instead of political theater. Unfortunately, many voters are manipulated easily. They bought the lie of being able to keep the health insurance they have and still believe health care premiums will go down. It’s a small step to believe food stamps should pay for all the food one needs. Don’t be surprised if it becomes one of Hillary’s campaign promises.

David J. Hentosh

Progressive Immigration Failure in Sweden

Progressives love to point to Sweden as an example of the type of utopian society they believe their agenda creates, but this past week’s riots in Sweden are a direct result of the continuing denial such an agenda demands. In the face of these riots, that denial continues as the press tries hard not to report that the overwhelming majority of rioters are Muslims.

Starting in the 80’s, Sweden began admitting a large number of third world immigrants, creating a generous welfare system to help them settle and assimilate. Economic and political upheaval in countries such as Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Iraq brought a huge number of Muslims to welcoming Sweden. Rather than assimilate, however, they created their own communities mirroring the values and traditions of their Muslim homelands.

The progressive, non-judgmental attitude prevalent in Sweden not only allowed these communities to shun assimilation, it allowed, and encouraged, an entire generation of Muslim immigrants to grow dependent on the welfare system while being infused with values and traditions that clash with Western societies. The violence towards the West found in the Middle East Muslim world, therefore, became part of their upbringing.

As Sweden tries to address the economic burden of their welfare system and revamp immigration policies, accusations of discrimination abound from those who have benefited most from those progressive policies. The autonomous communities that have been allowed to form are becoming offensive to many and as refusal to change continues, discrimination will undoubtedly occur.

There is much confusion on the part of officials in Sweden concerning the riots. Fully engrossed in progressive idealism, they do not understand how the recipients of their generosity could do such a thing. For those without progressive blinders, it is an inevitable result of being conditioned to welfare and treated with non-judgmental deference.

There is a lesson to be learned from this, but it is highly doubtful progressives here will see it. They have the same idealistic blinders on, believing open immigration and unlimited welfare works. The mainstream media agrees and will continue to conceal the rot such policies bring. They are much too invested to turn back now and will not allow riots in Sweden to be an omen.

David J. Hentosh

40 Years After Vietnam

The last US combat troops left Vietnam forty years ago on March 29, 1973. This was a result of a so-called “peace agreement” signed in Paris, but no peace occurred in South Vietnam. In fact, the ensuing year after the agreement was more deadly in South Vietnam than any year of the war.  That’s because the US wanted out of Vietnam, cared little about consequences, and declared “peace with honor” by signing an agreement everyone knew would not be honored by North Vietnam.

The US abandoned South Vietnam; much like it is abandoning Iraq and, eventually, will abandon Afghanistan (the “good” war). That is the lesson we learned from the Vietnam War. Declaring a politically incorrect war to be over is as good as a victory if it can be “sold” to the public as a win. That has now been expanded to simply declaring the economy to be fine, declaring the deficit to be no problem, declaring contraception to be a right, or declaring that the rich pay no taxes. Ideology trumps all.

One’s opinion of the Vietnam War is irrelevant to the issue of abandonment. A commitment was made to South Vietnam as part of the “peace agreement” to provide assistance if North Vietnam continued aggression, but a Democrat-controlled Congress refused that assistance when it quickly became needed. The US blatantly reneged on its commitment, abandoning South Vietnam to a total collapse and slaughter – because of ideology.

With war comes a responsibility, regardless of the reasons for the war. One should enter into war with clear goals and to win, or don’t enter into it at all. Allowing changing social mores, public opinion, or ideology to override responsibility or dictate rules of engagement is wrong. A “humane” war is an oxymoron and a losing strategy. War is hell, and hell should be entered only with good reason and traversed through as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Forty years after Vietnam, we have still not learned. Our enemies, on the other hand, learned well: Stick it out long enough and the US will tire and retreat. Where is the honor in that?

David J. Hentosh

Our Disabled Country

According to a January article in Forbes, 5.9 million people have been added to the Social Security Disability program (SSDI) since 2009 while only 2.5 million jobs were created during the same period. One in fourteen workers are now on the SSDI dole costing taxpayers $128.9 billion in 2011, and the program is carrying a deficit of $25.3 billion.

A recent investigation found that the federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled workers than it does on food stamps and welfare combined. Since disabled workers are not counted in unemployment figures, the full extent of the erosion of the American workforce ends up hidden from the public.

It should come as no surprise that the increasing number of disabled coincides with an increase in qualifying conditions for disability. Some of these conditions have been watered-down enough to include almost anyone willing to go through the process. The investigation found that 33.8% of the newly diagnosed disabled cited “back pain and other musculoskeletal problems”, difficult conditions to disprove.

Some qualifying mental conditions called “Affective Disorders” seem to rely on a self-diagnosis. These include such things as: decreased energy, feelings of guilt or worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbance, difficulties maintaining social functioning, and marked difficulties maintaining concentration. A doctor needs to sign off on these conditions but has to rely on the word of the patient for verification.

Obviously, the program is ripe for fraud and, consequently, it is rife with fraud. Getting around the system is easy and many alcoholics and drug addicts (conditions which do not qualify for SSDI) find a way in, as do many others. The possibility of receiving up to $1100 a month makes it attractive to those having menial, low paying jobs, especially since free Medicare comes as a bonus after two years on the disability rolls.

The American work ethic is dying and the “system” continues to assist in its death. What was once a ‘safety net’ has become ‘money for nothing’ because of progressive tendencies that put the individual above the common good. The continuous expansion of government assistance programs is occurring with no foresight or oversight and it needs to stop before the entire country becomes disabled.

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s State of Denial Address

President Obama once again delivered a campaign speech disguised as a State of the Union address. Obama is good with rhetoric that stirs emotions while denying reality, so those who succumb to such gibberish will be ecstatic. Those who are not in denial will be frightened by the direction this president is taking.

Obama’s denial of his administration’s failure to improve job growth was evident in his calling for a higher minimum wage. If there are no jobs available at a minimum rate of $7.25 an hour, how would raising it to $9.00 help create more? It wouldn’t, and many experts have warned against such an increase at this time, especially since it could result in jobs being exported to China.

Obama further denied the job crisis and threw out another emotional bone to hungry believers by stressing a college education. The unemployment lines are full of college graduates unable to find jobs, so the primary emphasis needs to be on the economy and job growth. Talking of college educations certainly plucks parents’ heart strings, Obama’s intent; but it hides his administration’s failure to improve the job market and reduce unemployment.

Obama declared Al Qaeda to be a “shadow of its former self”, denying Al Qaeda’s continued successful attacks around the globe. Declaring Al Qaeda defeated doesn’t make it so, but it rationalizes bringing troops home so he can cut the defense budget. Obama only cares about his social programs and cutting the defense budget will help him finance those programs. Pretending Iran and North Korea are of little threat also helps him in that endeavor.

In Obama’s eyes, everything is going well because he is, by hook or by crook, finding a way to get everything he wants. Consequences are meaningless to one convinced of superior intelligence, especially when duped voters and a highly invested media ignore accountability.  His “green” agenda has been a costly disaster, but that bandwagon is still full and rolling.

Inadvertently, the president did touch on reality in his speech at one point when he said his spending proposals would not increase the deficit by “a single dime”. They will increase the deficit by billions of dimes and saddle future generations with the bill, higher taxes, and programs they will no longer be able to afford. On the brighter side, fast food joints will end up with the most educated employees of any industry – as long as Michelle doesn’t find a way of eliminating fast food.

David J. Hentosh

Frightening Inauguration Speech

President Obama’s inauguration speech was a frightening glimpse into the next four years. He let it clearly be known that he is set to govern totally from the left and with carefully chosen rhetoric, he revealed his end game for “totally transforming” America.

Obama used his favorite obfuscating straw man tactic (clearly explained and revealed by Glen Beck) to validate his approach to almost everything. It is the smoke that carried him this far and will continue to do so as long as the mainstream media continues to inhale – and inhale they did.

Mainstream media praise knew no bounds and its bias could not be contained, exemplified by CNN correspondent Jim Acostas’ on-air giddiness at being so close to the president. Keeping in line with the adoration of Newsweek’s cover proclaiming Obama’s “second coming”, Obama’s communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, stated: “There’s a moment of opportunity now that’s important…What’s frustrating is that we don’t have a political system or an opposition party worthy of the opportunity.” That’s some arrogance on display.

Obama gave us his top priorities for his second term: equal pay, gay marriage, voting protections, immigration reform, and gun control. If you are in the 7.8% unemployed (the same unemployment rate as when Obama was first elected), that may be disheartening to hear but Obama also assured us that the economy is in recovery, eliminating the need to make unemployment a priority. He’d much rather increase spending.

National Defense and the military are not on the agenda because Obama informed us that a decade of war is now over. That must have occurred by means of one of his executive orders. Relief in Middle East countries will be immense when they learn of it. Perhaps part of his gun control priority will be an executive order for terrorists to turn in their guns and Iran to give up nukes.

Although Obama didn’t say climate change was a priority, one-trick-pony Al Gore still praised him for speaking “powerfully and eloquently” about it. Obama’s consistent first-term failures on the “green” front cooled his climate change desires but with no re-election holding him back, the “green” light is sure to be lit once more.

Obama’s focus on social issues got him re-elected but the larger, neglected issues are eroding the country. Obama is much more like Nero than Lincoln, blindly fiddling away as the country burns.

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s Fiscal Fallacy

President Obama continues to demand that the debt ceiling be raised, inferring that the nation’s bills will not be paid unless that ceiling is raised. His framing of economic issues skirts the truth and is done in such a way as to make him look like a rational and knowledgeable expert. The reality is that he is no expert; He is the problem.

Forty cents out of every dollar spent by the federal government is borrowed money and raising the debt ceiling only allows the government to borrow more money. It will not help reduce the debt or reduce the forty cents on the dollar borrowed. It will only help Obama increase entitlement spending to meet his personal, ideologically driven goals – by borrowing more money.

Obama has shown that the poor economy, high unemployment, and the enormous debt take a back seat to his personal ideology. This is why he fails to meet the legal requirement of submitting a budget by the first Monday in February. He has done that only once and will fail to do so again this year. In fact, he has failed to meet that requirement more than any previous president. It is not a priority on his agenda and legal requirements mean little to him.

Obama continually uses the blind faith many have in him, telling believers what they want to hear and spinning everything his way. It is the reason he was re-elected with an economy doing as poorly as it is and unemployment at such a high level. He uses rhetoric to solve economic problems in the minds of his followers while running up the tab fulfilling his personal agenda.

With no future re-election to hamper him, Obama’s arrogance is increasing as fast as the debt. His fiscal policies have been a farce and he is now aiming to ram through legislation on guns and immigration – through the back door. The bill for all of this will have to be paid eventually but by then he will be gone, leaving behind a costly and “fundamentally transformed” America for our children.

David J. Hentosh

The Farce Goes On and On

The National Monitor contains a headline stating: “Obama scores another victory: Unemployment rate falls to 7.8 percent, hiring continues”. The second sentence in the article reveals that the unemployment rate remains “unchanged” at 7.8%. How, then, can a stagnant unemployment rate be considered a victory for Obama? The answer, of course, is that everything Obama does must be considered a victory by today’s biased media.

An unemployment rate of 7.8% since September clearly shows that our economy is stagnant and not recovering, indicating that Obama’s economic policies are not working. Rising health insurance premiums reveal the fallacy of Obama’s promise of lower rates under Obamacare. The increase in social security taxes currently being felt by the middle class comes from Obama’s “successful” tax increase on the rich, breaking his promise to protect the middle class.

Obama was re-elected in spite of all of these failures, and more, because the media protected its investment with repeated spin, reporting success in everything. That spin continues even as Obama’s promises continue to fall and warnings and predictions from conservatives continue to become reality. Obama voters have been duped but, like the mainstream media, they continue to keep the dream alive through denial.

This denial is dangerous and it is allowing Obama’s promise to “fundamentally transform America” to come true – the one promise he is actually keeping. That promised “transformation” was ignored by a media intoxicated by “hope and change” and, therefore, never investigated. Tragically, it still remains ignored.

So, the farce goes on and on and points of no return are being passed with little awareness by the media and Obama voters. Eventually, the truth will become unavoidable and consequences will have to be faced but by then, too many bridges may have been burned. One can only hope that our children will be able to re-construct from those ashes some of the greatness America lost due to the hollow promises of “hope and change”.

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s Tax Charade

In his New Year message, president Obama made the claim that a middle class tax hike was prevented with the recent “fiscal cliff” agreement. He further stated that his priority has been to prevent a tax hike on 98% of all Americans in 2013 and that this agreement does that.

While it is true that expiration of the Bush tax cuts for 98% of Americans was prevented, the Social Security payroll tax holiday which was enacted in 2010 is going to expire, effectively raising taxes for most wage earners. This is a tax hike on the middle class that Obama pretends isn’t happening, amounting to a mean tax increase of approximately $1635 for 77% of Americans.

Obama’s class warfare succeeded in getting him re-elected and raising taxes on the rich, but the middle class he pretends to champion is now experiencing collateral damage from his war. Taxes, spending, and the deficit are rising and the middle class will have to pay for it for a long, long time. Meanwhile, the rich will continue to live well protecting their assets and some may leave the country to avoid Obama’s foolish attack.

Obama blows smoke and far too many inhale it willingly. He has previously stated that the last thing the middle class needs in this struggling economy is a tax increase, yet, his policies continue to raise taxes. Obamacare already increased health insurance premiums and taxes will have to increase to pay for it. Taxing the rich cannot possibly pay for all the entitlement programs Obama refuses to reduce – and he knows that. He just keeps it hidden with smoky rhetoric.

One can say that the American people deserve to be tricked and taxed because they elected the “leaders” doing it, but what of our children? They are going to be saddled with the cost of this charade for the rest of their lives. They don’t deserve to pay the consequences of poor decisions that elected such leadership. Even the rich kids don’t deserve this.

David J. Hentosh

Obama’s Dangerous Campaigning

Obama’s prime occupation for the past year has been campaigning for re-election. Refusing to ask hard questions, the biased media has been a willing partner in Obama’s attempt to hide his failures in order to get re-elected. Rather than investigate the administration’s glaring missteps and blunders, the media has focused on finding fault with Romney while echoing administration spin. This obsession with re-election has become a danger to the country.

Afghanistan, Obama’s “right” war, is failing and the American death toll is approaching 2000 at a current rate of approximately one per day. That’s slightly less than half the toll from 8 years of the Iraq war, and neither Obama nor the press mentions it. This is a far cry from the nightly reports of war deaths during the Bush administration. Afghanistan, for Obama’s sake, has become a silent, hidden war – and it is failing.

The economy, a definite smear on the Obama administration, continues to be spun as “recovering” in spite of all data and statistics, and voters are being told Obama has saved us from disaster. One need only look around to see the fallacy in this, yet, the spin continues in the hope of repetition becoming fact in voters’ minds.

Perhaps the most dangerous failure of Obama has been on the international front. Iran sneers at Obama and is on the verge of having nuclear weapons. Recent embassy attacks and deaths have been determined to have been planned terrorist actions and the administration is still immersed in blaming them on a video clip. The cover-up is part of a re-election campaign considering danger to the country as irrelevant.

We have had an absentee president for the past year and it is taking a toll. There is no national budget, immigration reform has been ignored, the Middle East is exploding, the economy is failing, class warfare is raging, the race card is alive and well, “green” policies hamper economic recovery, the deficit is increasing, and the media has lost all credibility

Obama’s solution is fund-raising, appearances on “The View” and “David Letterman”, ignoring national leaders, cover-ups, Romney bashing, and empty rhetoric. Four more months of this kind of irresponsible neglect is frightening. Four more years would be disastrous.

David J. Hentosh