Ryan Price's Soapbox

I am the kind of citizen who votes on the issues not party lines. I don’t vote based on the candidates good smile, or his excellent speaking ability, or if they are a specific faith. I vote based on where they stand on issues that will directly affect myself and my family. Would I have voted for Obama in 2008? Likely not, because the candidate I supported was actually Hillary Clinton based on her experience and her beliefs during the primaries were not as far left as Obama. Closing in on 2012, let’s see what Obama has done in his presidency and the problems we still face as a country, call it …transparency if you will.

Obama set the bar too high for himself, maybe  it’s an inflated ego but it has caused him to fail by his own standards. It’s the Obama administration, not the Republicans, that said if his stimulus package was passed unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. Obama joked there weren’t as many “shovel-ready” jobs as he thought. In such hard times, now isn’t the time to joke.

It’s Obama who promised to cut the deficit in half. It’s Obama who said if we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care cost curve would go down rather than up. It’s Obama who promised us recovery and prosperity, hope and change. What we’ve gotten instead is the opposite.

• Under Obama’s stewardship, we have lost 2.2 million jobs (and 900,000 full-time jobs in the last four months alone). He is now on track to have the worst jobs record of any president in the modern era.
• The unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent v. 7.8 percent the month Obama took office.
• July marked the 30th consecutive month in which the unemployment rate was above the 8 percent level, the highest since the Great Depression.
• Since May 2009 — roughly 14 weeks into the Obama administration — the unemployment rate has been above 10 percent during three months, above 9 percent during 22 months, and above 8 percent during two months.
• Chronic unemployment is worse than during the Great Depression.
• The youth employment rate is at the lowest level since records were first kept in 1948.
• The share of the eligible population holding a job has declined to the lowest level since the early 1980s.
• The housing crisis is worse than in the Great Depression. (Home values are worth roughly one-third less than they were five years ago.)
• The rate of economic growth under Obama has been only slightly higher than the 1930s, the decade of the Great Depression. From the first quarter of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, we experienced five consecutive quarters of slowing growth. America’s GDP for the second quarter of this year was a sickly 1.0 percent; in the first quarter, it was 0.4 percent.
• Fiscal year 2011 will mark the third straight year with deficits in excess of $1 trillion. Prior to the Obama presidency, we had never experienced a deficit in excess of $1 trillion.
• During the Obama presidency, America has increased its debt by $4 trillion. That is to say, Obama has achieved in two-and-a-half years what it took George W. Bush two full terms in office to achieve — and Obama, when he was running for president, slammed Bush’s record as being “unpatriotic.”
• America saw its credit rating downgraded for the first time in history under the Obama presidency.
• Consumer confidence has plunged to the lowest level since the Carter presidency.
• The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
• A record number of Americans now rely on the federal government’s food stamps program. More than 44.5 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, a 12 percent increase from one year ago.

So…based on these facts. I ask you this has Obama earned a 2nd term? In my eyes. No.

Education Policy

One of Michelle’s core beliefs in education is the teaching of intelligent design in public science classes. She is quoted as saying that evolution is a theory and has never been prove one way or the other. She co authored a bill that would require public schools to include alternative explanations for the origin of life as part of the public school science curricula.

College Cost Reduction and Access Act

The College Cost Reduction and Access Act is a significant education bill dealing largely with funding for higher education. The bill removes tuition sensitivity for Pell Grants, increases the amount available for Pell grants, Funds the Upward Bound program, establishes the TEACH Grants, reduces student loan repayment rates, sets deferments based on need and establishes some partner based grants. The bill got the full support of the Democrats, but passed with the support of only about 1/4 of the Republicans. Michele Bachmann voted against the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.

• Voted NO on $40B for green public schools. (May 2009)
• Voted NO on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects. (Nov 2007)

Fiscal Policy

Bachmann opposes minimum wage increases. She also supports increased domestic drilling of oil and natural gas and pursuing renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar, she also strongly supports the use of nuclear power. Some of her voting records on Fiscal policy are included below.

• Voted YES on $192B additional anti-recession stimulus spending. (Jul 2009)
• Voted NO on modifying bankruptcy rules to avoid mortgage foreclosures. (Mar 2009)
• Voted NO on additional $825 billion for economic recovery package. (Jan 2009)
• Voted NO on monitoring TARP funds to ensure more mortgage relief. (Jan 2009)
• Voted NO on $15B bailout for GM and Chrysler. (Dec 2008)
• Voted NO on $60B stimulus package for jobs, infrastructure, & energy. (Sep 2008)
• Voted NO on defining "energy emergency" on federal gas prices. (Jun 2008)
• Voted NO on revitalizing severely distressed public housing. (Jan 2008)
• Voted NO on regulating the subprime mortgage industry. (Nov 2007)
• Balanced Budget Amendment with 3/5 vote to override. (Jan 2009)
• Demand a Balanced Budget amendment. (Jul 2010)
• Limit federal spending growth to per-capita inflation rate. (Jul 2010)
• Member of House Banking Committee. (Mar 2011)
• Require a balanced budget, by Constitutional amendment. (Jan 2011)

Social Security and Medicare

Bachmann believes we should wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet. She does not support Paul Ryan’s stance on privatizing and doing a voucher program to reform the program, instead she would rather see it completely eliminated. She currently has no voting record on this issue nor Medicare.

National Security

Michelle in 2009 was against having KSM and other terrorists trials on U.S Soil and being subjected to the US legal system. She was also in support for three provisions in the PATRIOT act extension. Her voting record also shows: She voted in favor of the Protect America Act of 2007; a bill that sought to allow electronic surveillance of people reasonable believed to be outside of the United States. The bill lists the requirements for initiating surveillance and gives it a 1 year limitation. The bill passed in the House in a 227-183 vote.

• Voted NO on requiring FISA warrants for wiretaps in US, but not abroad. (Mar 2008)
• Voted in favor of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act 2010 – which prevented the movement of prisoners from Gitmo and classified photos of detainees.
• Voted NO on Veto override: Congressional oversight of CIA interrogations. (Mar 2008)
• Voted YES on removing need for FISA warrant for wiretapping abroad. (Aug 2007)
• Voted YES on restricting no-bid defense contracts. (Mar 2007)
• Improve educational assistance for veterans. (Apr 2008)
• Member of House Committee on Intelligence. (Mar 2011)
• Military spouses don’t lose voting residency while abroad. (Feb 2009)

Health Care

Repeal of Health Care Reform

In early 2011, the House voted on repealing the 2009-2010 health care reform legislation, called "Obamacare" by its opponents. Michele Bachmann voted in favor of repealing the health care legislation.

2009-2010 Health Care Reform – Amendments

There were three significant votes on the health care reform legislation in the house. The first passed the house version, the second passed the reconciliation bill, and the third passed a bill to address "problems" in the original bills. This vote passed amendments to address the problems with the reconciliation bill. She voted against the health care amendments for the House and Senate bills.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find any information about where she actually stands on this issue aside from repealing ObamaCare.

SCHIP

In addition to attempting overall health care reform, congress re-authorized SCHIP in 2009. SCHIP is a program to provide children with health care and fund it through tobacco taxes. The program passed with the full support of Democrats and roughly 1/4 of the Republicans. She voted against SCHIP.

Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act sets up health requirements for tobacco products, sets labeling guidelines, requires tobacco companies to report the content of their products, and prescribes punishements for violating any rules. The measure passed the House 298-112. Michele Bachmann voted against the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

This will be the start of a series where I look at all the potential 2012 candidates for the Republican nomination. Now of course we can’t really do Obama because he’s the President but what we can do is give some possible insight as to what he will be running with in terms of campaign points. Now lets look at what Newt brings to the table.

Jobs & the Economy

America only works when Americans are working. Newt has a pro-growth strategy similar to the proven policies used when he was Speaker to balance the budget, pay down the debt, and create jobs. Here is his plan.

The Gingrich Prosperity Plan -

• Stop the 2013 tax increase to promote stability in the economy. Job creation moved from stagnant to improving in the two months after Congress extended tax relief for two years. We should continue what has worked by making the rates permanent.
• Make the United States the most desirable location for new business investment through a bold series of tax cuts and regulatory reforms, including:
• Eliminating the capital gains tax to make American entrepreneurs more competitive against those in other countries;
• Dramatically reducing the corporate income tax (the highes in the world) to 12.5%;
• Allowing for 100% expensing of new equipment to spur innovation and American manufacturing;
• Ending the death tax permanently.
• Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley to remove burdensome financial regulation that is holding companies back from taking risks and making new investments.
• Implement an American energy policy that creates jobs in the United States versus the Obama plan which borrows money from China to give to Brazil to drill for oil and to then sell to Americans.
• Enforce the fiscal responsibility Americans deserve by controlling spending, implementing money saving reforms, and replacing destructive policies and regulatory agencies with new approaches.
• Repeal and replace Obamacare with a pro-jobs, pro-responsibility health plan that puts doctors and patients in charge of health decisions instead of bureaucrats.

Tell the Truth about National Security

Keeping Americans safe is the most important duty of government. That is why the confusion and incoherence of the Obama Administration’s response to the threats facing America is so troubling. Newt advocates sound policies to keep Americans safe based on timeless American principles.

Sound policies to keep Americans safe –

• Understand our enemies and tell the truth about them. We are engaged in a long war against radical Islamism, a belief system adhered to by a small minority of Muslims but nonetheless a powerful and organized ideology within Islamic thought that is totally incompatible with the modern world.
• Think big. America currently lacks a unified grand strategy for defeating radical Islamism.  The result is that we currently view Iraq, Afghanistan, and the many other danger spots of the globe as if they are isolated, independent situations.  Only a grand strategy for marginalizing, isolating, and defeating radical Islamists across the world will lead to victory.
• Know our values. America’s foreign policy must begin by understanding who we are as a country.  We are, as Ronald Reagan said, the world’s “abiding alternative to tyranny.” Therefore, America’s foreign policy must be to ensure our own survival and protect those who share our values.
• Military force must be used judiciously and with clear, obtainable objectives understood by Congress.
• Implement an American Energy Plan to reduce the world’s dependence on oil from dangerous and unstable countries, especially in the Middle East.
• Secure the border to prevent terrorist organizations from sneaking agents and weapons into the United States.
• Incentivize math and science education in America to ensure the men and women of our Armed Forces always have the most advanced and powerful weapons in the world at their disposal.

An American Energy Plan

Today’s high gas and energy prices are entirely a function of bad government policies. Newt has an American Energy Plan that would maximize energy production from all sources–oil, natural gas, wind, biofuels, nuclear, clean coal, and more–and would encourage clean energy innovation without discouraging overall energy production.

Newt’s American Energy Plan:

• Remove bureaucratic and legal obstacles to responsible oil and natural gas development in the United States, offshore and on land.
• End the ban on oil shale development in the American West, where we have three times the amount of oil as Saudi Arabia.
• Give coastal states federal royalty revenue sharing to give them an incentive to allow offshore development.
• Reduce frivolous lawsuits that hold up energy production by enacting loser pays laws to force the losers in an environmental lawsuit to pay all legal costs for the other side.
• Finance cleaner energy research and projects with new oil and gas royalties.
• Replace the Environmental Protection Agency, which has become a job-killing regulatory engine of higher energy prices, with an Environmental Solutions Agency that would use incentives and work cooperatively with local government and industry to achieve better environmental outcomes while considering the impact of federal environmental policies on job creation and the cost of energy.

Healthcare

The big government Obamacare approach does not address the root causes of America’s health care crisis. Instead, it creates layers of new taxes, regulations, and bureaucracies that will ultimately make our problems worse, not better. Newt proposes a personalized health system that would save lives and save money by empowering doctors and patients with more choices and more information.

Reforms to save lives and save money

• Make health insurance more affordable and portable by giving Americans the choice of a generous tax credit or the ability to deduct the value of their health insurance up to a certain amount and by allowing Americans to purchase insurance across state lines, increasing price competition in the industry.
• Create more choices in Medicare by giving seniors the option to choose, on a voluntary basis, a more personal system in the private sector with greater options for better care. This would create price competition to lower costs.
• Reform Medicaid by giving states more freedom and flexibility to customize their programs to suit their needs with a block-grant program similar to the successful welfare reform of 1996.
• Reward quality care by changing the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement models to take into account the quality of the care delivered and incentivizing beneficiaries to seek out facilities that deliver the best care at the lowest costs.
• Reward health and wellness by giving health plans, employers, Medicare, and Medicaid more latitude to design benefits to encourage, incentivize, and reward healthy behaviors.
• Stop health care fraud by moving from a paper-based system to an electric one. Health care fraud accounts for as much as much as 10 percent of all health care spending, according to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association. That’s more than $200 billion a year. Compare this to the 0.1% fraud rate in the credit card industry thanks to its high-tech information analysis systems.
• Stop junk lawsuits that drive up the cost of medicine with medical malpractice reform.
• Speed medical breakthroughs to patients by reforming the Food and Drug Administration.
• Inform patients and consumers of price and quality so they can make informed choices about how to spend their money on care. Patients have the right to know this information, but finding it is virtually impossible.
• Invest in research for health solutions that are urgent national priorities. More brain science research, for example, could lead to Alzheimer’s Disease cures and treatments that could save the federal government over $20 trillion over the next forty years.

Protecting Life and Religious Liberty

The revolutionary idea contained in the Declaration of Independence is that certain fundamental human rights, including the right to life, are gifts from God and cannot be given nor taken away by government. Yet, secular radicals are trying to remove “our Creator” – the source of our rights – from public life. Newt has an aggressive strategy to defend life and religious liberty in America.

Principles to protect life and religious liberty

• Nominate conservative judges who are committed to upholding Constitutional limited government and understand that the role of the judges is to interpret the law, not legislate from the bench.
• Combat judicial activism by utilizing checks on judicial power Constitutionally available to the elected branches of government.
• End taxpayer subsidies for abortion by repealing Obamacare, defunding Planned Parenthood, and reinstating the “Mexico City Policy” which banned funding to organizations that promote and/or perform abortions overseas.
• Protect religious expression in the public square such as crosses, crèches and menorahs.
• Protect healthcare workers right to conscience by making sure they are not forced to participate in or refer procedures such as abortion.
• Protect the rights of home-schooled children by ensuring they have the same access to taxpayer funded, extra-curricular educational opportunities as any public school student.
• Protect the rights of teachers to use historical examples involving religion in their classroom.  Nor should they be discouraged from answering questions about religion or discussing it objectively in the classroom.
• Protect the frail, infirm and the elderly from the state’s arbitrary decision to terminate life.

To view his Interview with Sean Hannity here are two links:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4690270/newt-gingrich-on-his-2012-run-part-1/

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4690269/newt-gingrich-on-his-2012-run-part-2/

To learn more and to support Newt on his path to the Presidency visit: http://www.newt.org

We knew it was about to get bad for Obama and the Democrats; we just didn’t know it would get *this* low *this* quickly.

Rasmussen Reports’ new poll out this morning shows Obama’s approval rating at an astonishingly low 44%. Moreover, his “strongly disapprove” numbers are at a record high of 46%.  The majority of independents now disapprove of Obama’s job performance.  Republicans are favored for the fourth straight month over Democrats on the generic congressional ballot.

With Obama’s numbers as low as they are and the Democrats passing his wildly unpopular health control initiative through Congress, one has to wonder if he’s a Republican plant.  Yes, I’m kidding.  But as a political strategy, it certainly makes more sense than his current actions do if he’s trying to maintain control of Congress in 2010 and get re-elected in 2012.  He’s looking more and more like Jimmy Carter every day.

Can we trade him in as part of a cash for clunkers deal?  With some cash we could work on paying down that burgeoning deficit.