Diane and I traveled to Columbus on May 5, 2012 for the President’s Kickoff Rally for the 2012 Re-Election Campaign. We were joined by 14,000 of their closest friends in The Ohio State University”s Schottenstein Center. What a treat to be in the presence of that many avid Democrats. We all need to do our part in seeing that Barrack Obama is our President for Four More Years! ~ Don Clement
Economy Has Recovered All Private Sector Jobs Lost Since Obama Took Office
As of April, there are now more private sector jobs in the United States than there were in January 2009, when President Obama took office. You read that right. We have now replaced all of the private sector jobs lost while Obama has been president. And that was no mean feat, given that over the course of 2009, the private sector shed about 4.2 million jobs.
Unfortunately, the news is not nearly so good when it comes to the public sector, where there are currently 607,000 fewer people working than there were when President Obama took office. (Source)
Take a moment to digest this. The economy, courtesy of the failed economic policies of President Bush and Republicans, was in a complete free-fall when President Obama took office. And despite conservative efforts to not only re-write history (so that it doesn’t include anything that happened before 2009, and when they do acknowledge that 2008 took place, they say Obama was in office), the truth is that President Obama was handed an incredible mess. But once his economic policies were put in place, most notably the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the jobs picture has improved, so much so that over 4 million private sector jobs.
Just imagine what the jobs picture would look like if voters hadn’t put Republicans into the governorships of a majority of states in 2010, where they proceeded to lay off thousands of public employees. If we want to see what Republican economic policies would look like on a national scale, just look at what Scott Walker has done in Wisconsin. He led his state to the largest over-the-year percentage decrease in employment (-0.9 percent) between 2011-12.
“Obama Cares” – Saving Seniors Billions of Dollars on Medicine
What a shock. Another program passed by Democrats that is working for the country, while Republicans lie about it:
In the first two years after “Obamacare” was signed, Medicare reforms in the law saved seniors a total of $3.4 billion in prescription drug costs by bridging a coverage gap, according to official figures.
Over 220,000 beneficiaries have saved an average of $837 in the first three months of 2012, the Medicare agency said Monday. That’s on top of $3.2 billion in savings enjoyed by some 5.1 million seniors in 2010 and 2011 thanks to the Affordable Care Act, according to the advisory on the new figures.
“The Affordable Care Act is helping millions on Medicare save billions of dollars on care and prescription drugs,” top Medicare official Marilyn Tavenner said in a statement. “The Affordable Care Act gives people on Medicare the relief they need from medical costs and more resources to stay healthy.” (Source)
Forward
Let’s not let Republicans and the lazy establishment media get away with erasing the successes of the past years, and the economic disaster that President Obama was handed when he took office.
28 More Years?
One of the best political videos you will ever see. Not only is it hilarious, but it mocks so many of the ridiculous right-wing talking points.
Even Centrists View Republicans as “Ideologically Extreme”
This column that appeared in the April 27th Washington Post gets at the heart of the problems facing us in politics right now. It was not written by Democrats or partisans of any type. It was written by scholars who occupy the center of the political spectrum. It hits upon what should be obvious to anyone who is paying attention. But with much of the media obsessed with the false equivalency of “both sides do it,” many voters not engaged in political discussions everyday are not getting a true story of what is actually happening in government right now:
We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
Sutton Beats Renacci in 1st Quarter Fundraising
This is good news, considering how much outside money Jim Renacci will receive to help his campaign, along with his vast personal wealth:
U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, raised more in campaign contributions than U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth, between Feb. 16 and March 31.
But she remains several hundred thousand dollars behind him in cash on hand in the 16th District congressional race, according to her latest campaign finance filing on Sunday (April 15) with the Federal Election Commission. (Source)