The election was won by identity politics. Black people voted for President Obama by over 93%, Hispanics 71% and Asians 73%. The exit polls show 55% of women voted for Obama, whereas 59% of white people voted for Romney. Ninety percent who thought the economy is good voted for Obama. Those who thought it is not so good voted for Romney by 60% margins.
Why Romney lost so big is a topic really outside our purview, yet we'll put in our 2¢ that it might be due to campaign rhetoric on policies promised. Unfortunately, there are words and there are deeds. What has the Obama administration done economically for the demographic groups who gave President Obama a second term?
Food stamp usage has soared to a new record high of 47,102,780. As of August 2012, 1 in 6.7 people are on food stamps in the United States. That's 15.0% of people living in America are on food assistance. The United States population in middle of August 2012 was 314,484,000 and this figure includes everyone, including Americans overseas. Food stamp usage increased 2.9% from August 2011 and 0.9% from July 2012.
Since October 2007, food stamp usage has increased 74.4%. Population has increased 3.9% during the same time period. That is how badly America is hurting.
The main stream media has finally caught on that Congress will cause a major recession through economic blackmail in addressing the Fiscal cliff. Now there are calls for compromise. Ever notice when we hear the call for compromise there are few specifics? That's our problem with D.C. generally, policies based on facts, statistics and their effects not only are ignored, we hear plain lies on what these agendas actually do.
The blueprint for a deal to avoid a fiscal nightmare early next year may be found in the failed debt negotiations between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner in mid-2011.
Part of their talks on a $4 trillion deficit-cutting plan included a gradual increase in the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and an alternative yardstick for calculating inflation that would reduce annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustments.
The spending was obscene. The campaign was an astounding 18 months of drum beats and cable noise over an electoral map where most states are not competitive for both parties. The Center for Responsible Politics estimates this election cost $6 billion.
The noise from the election machine is at 120 decibels. If you don't wear ear plugs you'll damage your hearing. Campaigns and their surrogates are misquoting statistics, rewriting history and are carpet bombing Ohio with ads and armies of campaign workers knocking at the door.
The political everybody has an opinion not based in fact pundit world is ablaze over a new Romney ad claiming Chrysler is planning on building a plant in China and making Jeeps there. The ad references this Bloomberg article, from October 22nd, which reports Fiat, the majority shareholder in Chrysler, wants to move some production to China.
No one can ferret out the economic and tax outrage like David Cay Johnston. His new book, The Fine Print exposes more shafting of the U.S. middle class through fees, contracts and taxes, this time all buried in the details. Johnston tallies up all of the fees, overcharges and gifts to corporations to show small font corruption costs each American family of four about $2,390 per year.
Most of us know we do not have government by and for the people. Johnston documents the never ending collusion between corporate America and government. That's all government, federal, state, local and even the court system working not for the national interest, but for corporate America's interests. The book is front loaded with all sorts of outrage which should get your blood boiling. No political party and their agendas are spared.
Did you know state and local governments give corporations at least $70 billion per year in rebates and tax breaks? Some corporations get over 90% of new facilities paid for by taxpayers. Did you know corporations get massive state and local tax givebacks on the promise of a few jobs? State and local governments pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a few jobs which pay little, if the company bothers to hire any Americans at all. One deal for Verizon amounted to paying $3.1 million dollars per job promised by the company.
CBS 60 Minutes profiled one town near Purgatory mountain, Asheboro, North Carolina to show what's really wrong with the U.S. economy. It's not taxes, small government or big government, or even the deficit. The real problem are jobs going offshore, companies treating workers as disposable and the never ending race to the bottom on wages, global labor arbitrage.
Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly under the radar finds that made our eyes pop. 
The main stream media has finally caught on that 
The spending was obscene. The campaign was an astounding 18 months of drum beats and cable noise over an electoral map where most states are not competitive for both parties. The 
The noise from the election machine is at 120 decibels. If you don't wear ear plugs you'll damage your hearing. Campaigns and their surrogates are misquoting statistics, rewriting history and are carpet bombing Ohio with ads and armies of campaign workers knocking at the door. 
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