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Why Obama's JOBS Act Couldn't Suck Worse
Boy, do I feel like an idiot. I've been out there on radio and TV in the last few months saying that I thought there was a chance Barack Obama was listening to the popular anger against Wall Street that drove the Occupy movement, that decisions like putting a for-real law enforcement guy like New York AG Eric Schneiderman in charge of a mortgage fraud task force meant he was at least willing to pay lip service to public outrage against the banks.
President Barack Obama signs the Bill for the HR 3606, the 'Jump start Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.' (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Then the JOBS Act happened.
The "Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act" (in addition to everything else, the Act has an annoying, redundant title) will very nearly legalize fraud in the stock market.
In fact, one could say this law is not just a sweeping piece of deregulation that will have an increase in securities fraud as an accidental, ancillary consequence. No, this law actually appears to have been specifically written to encourage fraud in the stock markets.
Ostensibly, the law makes it easier for startup companies (particularly tech companies, whose lobbyists were a driving force behind its passage) attract capital by, among other things, exempting them from independent accounting requirements for up to five years after they first begin selling shares in the stock market.
The law also rolls back rules designed to prevent bank analysts from talking up a stock just to win business, a practice that was so pervasive in the tech-boom years as to be almost industry standard.
Even worse, the JOBS Act, incredibly, will allow executives to give "pre-prospectus" presentations to investors using PowerPoint and other tools in which they will not be held liable for misrepresentations. These firms will still be obligated to submit prospectuses before their IPOs, and they'll still be held liable for what's in those. But it'll be up to the investor to check and make sure that the prospectus matches the "pre-presentation."
The JOBS Act also loosens a whole range of other reporting requirements, and expands stock investment beyond "accredited investors," giving official sanction to the internet-based fundraising activity known as "crowdfunding."
But the big one, to me, is the bit about exempting firms from real independent tests of internal controls for five years.
When I first read this, I asked myself: how does a law exempting a Silicon Valley startup from independent accounting actually encourage investment? If American companies have to post real, independently-verified numbers when they go public, doesn't that give investors all around the world a big reason to put their money here, instead of investing in, say, Mobbed-Up Siberian Aluminum LLC, or Bangalore Sweatshop Inc.?
In other words, how does letting www.investonawhim.com go to market (and stay on the market for five years!) without publishing real numbers actually help the industry attract more financing in general, when the whole point of all of these controls is to make investment a less risky experience for the investor?
Get ready for the ostensible answer, because you won't believe it. Here's how CNN explained the reasoning behind that exemption:
Having 500 investors or raising $5 million previously forced a company to register with the SEC -- a costly endeavor. Filling out stacks of legal forms and undergoing independent accounting audits can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The law loosens requirements for most companies by raising several thresholds.
We needed Barack Obama and the congress to compromise the entire U.S. stock market because it's too expensive for a publicly-listed company with billion-dollar ambitions to hire an accountant? That almost sounds like a comedy routine:
SILICON VALLEY EXECUTIVE: Listen, IJustThoughtOfSomething.com is the hottest thing on the internet. We're so huge it hurts... I can't even walk to my corner bodega without women throwing me their phone numbers!
INVESTOR: I'd love to invest. Can I see your numbers from last year?
SILICON VALLEY EXECUTIVE: Well, that's just the thing. We painted the bathrooms last March, and then we also had that Vitamin Water machine put in the lounge. You know, the one next to the ping-pong table? So we just didn't have any money left over for an accountant. But I estimate our revenues for 2014 to be $4.2 billion.
INVESTOR: Sounds hot! Where do I send the check?
There's just no benefit that the JOBS Act brings to an honest startup company. In fact, it puts an honest company at a severe disadvantage, because now it has to compete against other, less scrupulous companies that can simply make their projections up on the backs of envelopes.
The JOBS Act seems like it will invite a replay of the disastrous tech-stock bubble of the late nineties. That mess was made possible by a historic collapse in accounting standards, with the great investment banks the pioneers of the collapse.
This is like formally eliminating steroid testing for the first five years of a baseball player's career. Yes, you can pretty much bet that you'll see a lot of home runs in the first few years after you institute a rule like that. But you'd better be ready to stick a lot asterisks in the record books ten or fifteen years down the line.
In the same way, get ready for an avalanche of shareholder suits ten years from now, since post-factum civil litigation will be the only real regulation of the startup market. In fact, there are already supporters talking up future lawsuits as an appropriate tool to replace the regulations being wiped out by this bill.
The JOBS Act seems like it will invite a replay of the disastrous tech-stock bubble of the late nineties. That mess was made possible by a historic collapse in accounting standards, with the great investment banks the pioneers of the collapse. In the old days, in the fifties and sixties for instance, you would never take a company public that wasn't profitable at the time of the IPO, or didn't have a multi-year track record of solid revenues.
When the banks stopped insisting on proven track records or real profitability before taking a company public, there was a sudden explosion of stock-market investment into heretofore unknown internet firms. Companies with no track records went from having literally no revenues at all to having five or six billion dollars' worth of market capitalization overnight. Banks explained that the new way to measure a company was by the quality of its ideas, not boring old indicators like revenues.
Even Alan Greenspan told the world that technology had made such great advances that the traditional laws of economics no longer applied, that there was "new paradigm," and that it was possible to have long-term growth without inflation. He essentially told the world that the bubble wasn't a bubble, because all that phony growth was not phony at all, it was just a whole bunch of people properly evaluating great new ideas, albeit before they had actually performed.
And we later found out, of course, a lot of that value wasn't value at all. And a lot of that sharp growth in the nineties was actually caused by complex fraud schemes like "spinning" and "laddering,", wherein banks artificially pumped up startup stocks in exchange for future business, or rigged the IPOs so that they would have fake "bumps" in investment at pre-arranged times.
Sometimes the companies themselves were the victims in the fraud scams, and sometimes the company executives were beneficiaries of fraud. But in virtually all of these schemes, the casual investor was the big dupe in the con. When the dot-com bubble finally collapsed, costing the world about $5 trillion in losses, the major victims were ordinary people. We can expect a replay of the same thing now, only on a much bigger scale.
The finance world is buzzing over this bill. The reactions I've heard so far range from minutes-long guffaws of dark laughter to bloodcurdling, I-can't-freaking-believe-they-went-this-far outrage. "I thought I had lost the ability to be shocked," one friend of mine, a former regulator, told me this weekend, chuckling at the sheer stones it took to push the law. "But this thing is just inspired. They broke the mold with this one."
There are some crazy side-stories that I'll get to later in the week, including the hilarious influence certain preposterous individuals had in pushing this bill (most notably Steve Case, former co-founder of AOL and a veteran of multiple accounting fraud scandals, who was recruited by both parties to lobby the bill). There are also some remarkable contradictions in the arguments the bill's supporters made when they pushed for the bill's passage. Anyway, more on this to come.
In the meantime, let's just say this is a dramatic step taken by Barack Obama. Nobody should have any illusions about where he stands on Wall Street corruption after this thing. Boss Tweed himself couldn't have done any worse.
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86 Comments so far
Show AllMatt, Matt! Of course it could suck worse. Give him time.
:O)
It's pretty well-known that while in "the joint" criminal minds perfect their arts. And so it is with the world of white collar crime. Much was learned from the era of the S & L (Savings and Loans) scam, followed by the deft way that Enron compiled its profits, added to the way accounting firms like Arthur Anderson managed "the books."
These trends coalesced into the more recent schemes launched as Derivatives and swaps, the non-product traded 'round the world to such deadly ends... with the pain being felt in Italy, Ireland, Iceland, Spain, and our own land. Had big money not managed to own candidates prepared to take down the firewall put in place after the Great Depression (Glass-Steagall) to insure against another repeat, the corruption that's overtaken "the market" would never have taken place.
Now, just as war criminals got to walk away scot-free from engineering Wars of Aggression (with over a million left dead), the engineers behind the crash of 2007-2008 were so well-rewarded for their covert crimes, that with the newfound wealth at their disposal, they've once again purchased the politicians who are tasked with taking down what's left of any remaining firewalls.
The times could not be more rife with corruption. From wars based on fixing evidence, to nods given for torture, as precious civil liberties are shorn away like bodies left to rot in newly abandoned "theaters" of war. It all stinks to high heaven.
When I read an article like this, I ask myself which will come first: the utter collapse of the U.S. economy or such vile signs of climate destabilization as to make paper money the farce that it is.
Hold on for a rough ride.
Because so much taking place mirrors what took place in Nazi Germany, one wonders if the high stakes gambler-banksters manage to crash the economy again, if THIS time the state will claim a right to our gold, our homes, and even the gold and silver in our teeth under the guise that it's a State Security necessity.
I pray for Divine Intervention...
When I read an article like this, I ask myself which will come first: the utter collapse of the U.S. economy or such vile signs of climate destabilization as to make paper money the farce that it is.
Hold on for a rough ride.~ Siouxrose
* * *
i tend to see ECOlogy and ECOnomy as two arms of one concern. both are now in such an advanced state of collapse that the ride gets bumpier and rougher by the moment. we live in the collapse and no amount of monopoly money can stop the crash. so, yep, i buckle my seatbelt and try to find some little something to smile about each day.
HELP, everybody! sometimes i feel too sad about the things i cannot change to smile.
Who cares about gold or silver? Obama has his hands deeper than that: all food and water.
Truth. Just check out the WH's own website:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness
Me: I pray that the climate upheaval will force the entire country to take a break, or else other countries will nuke us, if the US doesn't nuke itself. America outlived its usefulness decades ago. The GWOT is simply a resource war to sustain the American Way of Life.
Siouxrose: Wise words, said with eloquence, as usual.
I don't think Divine Intervention will interfere this time around, as the wicked governments in the United States, Israel, and the NATO goon squad countries are gearing up for WW3.
But, you never know...
What are you talking about? i just went to cnbc and they have this to say:
"President Barack Obama signed bipartisan jobs legislation Thursday that will help small businesses and make it easier for start-ups to raise capital, saying it could be a "game-changer" for entrepreneurs dreaming of founding the next Microsoft [MSFT 30.81 -0.165 (-0.53%) ] or Facebook.
"When their ideas take root, we get inventions that can change the way we live," Obama said in the Rose Garden, flanked by lawmakers of both parties who backed the bill. "And when their businesses take off, more people become employed."
He said the initiatives in the bill paralleled many of the provisions that he sought last fall in his jobs agenda to encourage small-business growth.
But Republicans also helped fashion the bill — and sought to take credit. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor stood over Obama's shoulder at the signing ceremony.
"This bill represents exactly the kind of bipartisan action we should be taking in Washington to help our economy," Obama said.
Some Democrats, however, raised concerns that the bill softened investment protections enacted after the dot-com excesses and Wall Street meltdowns and the changes could lead to fraud and abuse."
oh, forget that last paragraph. its the bipartisanship that's important. the two parties working together to ensure our future. aahhh, time to invest in america, again. and it didn't cost the government a thing.
Step right up ladies and gents. Ger yer red hot stock right here. We got yer internet stocks. We got yer mining stocks. We got investment opportunities in land on the gold coast. Make yer fortune right here. These once in a lifetime opportunities are going fast so step into this world of wealth right now. Grab that golden ring before it passes you by. Step right up.
Gee mister, I sure would like to give you all my money but there isn't any left. My sister and me was savin up to buy mom a mother's day present but maybe we'll take that money and put it with you. I sure do hate to miss out on all these golden opportunities passing me by. I lost everything with Enron but now with Mr. Obamer looking out for us and that new jobs bill - why, everything is going to be just fine. Thank you.
Don't throw away your money and chance for a fortune on some cheap bauble for your Mom! Think how happy she'll be in the new home you'll purchase with your profits!
Just give me the money and sign on the dotted line:
....................................................................................
LOL! Well, according to this article we can actually time the next stock market bubble/crash. It will be just over 5 years after this law was passed, probably late 2017-2018. This when all the fraudulent companies will have their lies exposed, 5 years after they were formed.
I also think this law demonstrates that the American economy is done for. Our leaders acknowledge it themselves by concluding that only a deliberately timed fraud bubble, is the only thing they can come up with to deceive the public that things have turned around.
All these Washington critters have to offer us is lies, more lies, and a little fraud thrown in for good measure.
I seriously suggest that forward thinking young Americans should look into emigration out of the USA to somewhere else. A lot of countries do require education beyond a certain level today, but a bachelor's degree should be adequate for most. Also, once you have permanently left the USA never to return, it is likely you can forget about your student loans unless international laws are changed. So you have the satisfaction of escaping to a better country and leaving your debts behind you!
This requires research to verify. I believe most countries don't want to accept immigrants who have large debts in their originating countries, so the barrier would be getting accepted for immigration at all.
I'm totally with you on the goal, though, and I wish I wasn't born in this fucking country.
When some of the progressive talk show hosts started talking excitedly about Obama's speech last week, I knew Obama was preparing some move like this -- I didn't know it would come so quickly. Obama will never listen to the disfranchised and the poor -- he had enough of them, evidently, working as an organizer before he went to Harvard.
It seems his lesson as a community organizer was that poor people smell and are disposable.
Brilliant, NC-Tom !!
In his speech of August 4, 1857, "West India Emancipation," Frederick Douglass said many insightful things, but Matt's article reminds me of this quote in particular: "Sir, if such a people as ours had heard the beloved disciple of the Lord, exclaiming in the rapture of the apocalyptic vision, 'And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people;' they, instead of answering, Amen Glory to God in the Highest, would have responded,--But brother John, will it pay? Can money be made out of it? Will it make the rich richer, and the strong stronger? How will it affect property? In the eyes of such people, there is no God but wealth; no right and wrong but profit and loss."
The shame of our nation today is that there is no shame. The only sin is getting caught. Apparently if one is clever in rewriting the laws, the odds of getting caught can be reduced almost to zero. Put on your 3-D glasses and enjoy the show. Caring is for suckers. So sad.
Wow! Wall Street's return on investment in Obama has surely beat all records and expectations. Just when you think the man can't possibly do any more harm, he does, in spades. He seems to have no regard for the American people or even for his own ruined legacy.
And what a tortured name for a bill designed to derive such a cleverly Orwellian acronym. That takes a truly demented sense of humor, perhaps to match the expression of Eric Cantor, standing at Obama's shoulder. Yves Smith at NakedCapitalism.com dubbed this one "Jumpstart Obama's Bucket Shops Act."
Bucket shops!! Yes, exactly!! I wonder how many will catch that reference?
I don't get the allusion - PLEASE pass it along...
From Wikipedia:
"As defined by the U.S. Supreme Court a Bucket shop is "[a]n establishment, nominally for the transaction of a stock exchange business, or business of similar character, but really for the registration of bets, or wagers, usually for small amounts, on the rise or fall of the prices of stocks, grain, oil, etc., there being no transfer or delivery of the stock or commodities nominally dealt in."[1] People often mistakenly interchange the words bucket shop and boiler room, but there is actually a significant difference. A boiler room has been defined as a place where high-pressure salespeople use banks of telephones to call lists of potential investors (known as "sucker lists") in order to peddle speculative, even fraudulent, securities. However, with a bucket shop, it could be better thought of as a place where people go to make “side bets” – similar to a bookie."
Quoting Bill Black, in a letter opposing the bill:
"The 'Jumpstart Our Business Startups' Act, the comically forced effort to create a catchy acronym, is the most cynical bill to emerge from a cynical Congress and Administration. It is an exemplar of why Congressional approval ratings are well below those of used car dealers. The JOBS Act is something only a financial scavenger could love. It will create a fraud-friendly and fraud-enhancing environment. It will add to the unprecedented level of financial fraud by our most elite CEOS that has devastated the U.S. and European economies and cost over 20 million people their jobs. Financial fraud is a prime jobs killer."
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/03/why-you-should-hate-the-jumpstart-obamas-bucket-shops-act.html
In other words, the JOBS Act is designed for hedge funds and vulture capitalists to create new casino games without any regulation or SEC oversight, FWIW. Obama has gone completely off the deep end. But just wait until he's reselected, when he has "more flexibility" as he noted to Russia's Medvedev.
In the early days of stock trading, before electronics, "brokerages", or bucket shops (supposedly) bought large numbers of shares of publicly traded companies. Stock traders, or "investors", would do business at these bucket shops in lieu of trading on the exchanges themselves. This led to all sorts of fraudulent practices. Also, see Doug Terpestra's much more detailed explanation just above.
US Congress passes phony “JOBS Act”
The name of the Jump-Start Our Business Startup Act was chosen to yield the acronym “JOBS Act,” but this awkward terminological concession was the only nod the framers gave toward actual job creation. In reality, it is simply another corporate handout.
The Obama administration issued a statement saying it was “heartened” by the agreement. “We applaud Republicans and Democrats for working together, but there is still much more work to be done to create jobs and strengthen the recovery,” said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage. The act is modeled on proposals from Obama’s equally misnamed “Jobs Council,” and follows lines laid out in the president’s State of the Union address earlier this year.
...Millions of people have been out of work for months and even years. Whatever jobs are available pay poverty-level wages. Thanks to the Obama administration, the profits of US corporations are at record highs. And behind the thin smokescreen of its “jobs” measures, the American political establishment is preparing the more serious task of launching a renewed assault on health care, pensions and social programs.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/jobs-m29.shtml
>>
In the same way, get ready for an avalanche of shareholder suits ten years from now, since post-factum civil litigation will be the only real regulation of the startup market. In fact, there are already supporters talking up future lawsuits as an appropriate tool to replace the regulations being wiped out by this bill.
<<
I've just thought of a wonderful new investment vehicle to go along with this new law. JOBS Act Lawsuit Futures. This would consist of selling and purchasing of contracts based on the future costs and/or awards resulting from the lawsuits predicted by Taibbi to occur 10 to 15 years from now resulting from JOBS relaxation of prudent investment rules. Put and Call Options on those futures contracts would also be allowed. Fortunes could be made and lost investing in lawsuit futures and options on lawsuit futures. BRILLIANT!! BRILLIANT I TELL YOU!!
Matt is paid well to propagate a familiar racket at Rolling Stone - to build another cashable personality kult under the pretense of political concern for the people's welfare. If Matt really wanted to help the people throw off the elite yoke, he would write about the people, and their visions, aspirations, initiatives, systems and successes. Instead, he diverts their attention to the elite enterprise in a way that swirls a little likeable humility in with a demon streak of oppression. Not buying it, Matt. None of the people buy the liberal racket any more. We're shedding our chains and reaching for our nirvana. No more compromise. No more paralyzing confusion.
rtdrury -- Matt has a kult? Not just a cult but an actual 'kult'?
Does membership consist of just reading his articles or is it a bit more clandestine?
So by drawing our attention to how the 1% that own and run our country are concocting new schemes to suck the marrow out of our bones ... this is a "liberal racket"? This is "paralyzing confusion" blocking "our nirvana"?
You do understand that this is a site where people discuss politics and economics?
I can't tell if you are promoting psychedelics, Buddhism, ganja, reincarnation, New Ageism, back-to-the-land, etc. but why is it Matt Taibbi's job to promote your vision?
Why don't you promote your vision-- whatever it is-- and let Taibbi work on nailing the banksters?
Well-written response.
I wholeheartedly agree...
rtdrury might be on to something. I'm going to wait and see. I remember Matt's comment about Dennis Kucinich during the 2008 primaries -- he said something about Kucinich was too weird to be president because he ate noodles in a weird way. Just not cool like Obama. When Matt comes out for a third party, I'll believe he's serious. On the other hand he may be like other faux progressives or lefties like Jon Stewart (never could be mistaken for a lefty), Amy Goodman and Michael Moore who talk the talk and then let slip that they're still Obamabots. Matt writes good articles but Rolling Stone is still corporate coolness, just like the Daily Show. They're examples of what got Obama elected. Corporate coolness sells. Again, I'll wait and see.
Well put. Taibbi writes well, but he's really in it for the money. He has a good job. Very good point re: Rolling Stone and "corporate coolness". I voted for Nader.
countermarch wrote: "Matt, Matt! Of course it could suck worse. Give him time."
Indeed.
If he's re-elected, he'll focus full-bore on attacking Iran, and on gutting the remains of the social safety net in America.
And some people think he can't multitask...
"Even Alan Greenspan told the world that technology had made such great advances that the traditional laws of economics no longer applied, that there was 'new paradigm.'" One word -- for the ongoing (nationally, both corporate and government, PRed) mentality: Enron.
What is Obama where did it come from? The other side of the looking glass? He speaks a different form of English. The words seem to have opposite meanings then the English I learned in school. Maybe Dick Cheney injected some of Ronnie Rayguns stem cells into Obama's brain.
If so, it isn't surprising, since Dick Cheney and Barack Obama ARE related, after all!
The US buy-partisan Congress took great care to make sure there were no hearings to consider testimony about the act. Who says there is no such thing as organized crime!
Reinforcement of the axiom: since pro is the opposite of con-Congress must be the opposite of progress...
stop bashing Pres Obama! Do you want Romney to win. Romney is gonna take Birth Control away for heck sakes!
Romney or Santorum would do the same thing and take birth control away ... so when you get your girlfriend pregnant while living under a bridge you'll have to deliver the baby there.... before they all send you to the next war
Did you attend Oxford?
Is this comment intended as sarcasm? I hope so.
Seriously, the only substantive difference I can surmise between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is that, to the best of my knowledge, Romney hasn't killed anyone -- yet. No worries.... If elected, Romney will quickly (and gleefully) join Obama in the orgiastic and sociopathic killing fields of U.S. imperial hubris and the two will then be indistinguishable.
Giovanna: Correct! "Birds of a feather flock together."
I'm not ready to blame it on Pres. Obama, but it sure is bad legislation. He is in a position where it is very difficult for him to block any legislation that looks bi-partisan, or that has some relationship to jobs. Yes, we can all see that it is totally mislabeled and has nothing to do with jobs. And we can see that the Wall Street crowd has purchased the US Congress in order to get bi-partisan action. But this is an election year and appearances are everything. All presidencies are filled with compromises. All presidents get elected and re-elected based on appearances. What we have to look at it is the balance of accomplishments behind the appearances, and the balance for the Obama presidency is strongly positive.
Old Blue -- I assume you are not being ironic when you say "the balance for the Obama presidency is strongly positive."
For those of us who missed all that positive stuff ... could you update us?
I'm with you, Randy. WTF?
It takes ethics and integrity to just say no to bad legislation and let them them override the veto. But Obama is lacking in all that integrity stuff. The GOP top runners ensure no one of integrity and ethics will get in that office.
'What we have to look at it is the balance of accomplishments behind the appearances, and the balance for the Obama presidency is strongly positive." - Old Blue
I'm having to hold up my jaw after that one. What planet have you been living on the last 3 years? I can't imagine anyone but a Neocon calling this disastrous presidency strongly positive. Consider the following "accomplishments": FISA and telecom immunity for blatant crimes; the health racket bailout; new Wall Street bailouts; a new credit card bill without usury caps; the permanent extension of Gitmo, amnesty for torture, war crimes, and fraudclosure; NDAA; non-judicial (illegal)assassinations; suspension of habeas corpus; the new prisoner strip search law; the extension of Bush's tax cuts for billionaires; the war on Libya and the expansion of drone wars; NAFTA and three new SHAFTA pacts; renewal of the Patriot Act with new assaults on liberty; expansion of unconstitutional domestic spying; use of signing statements to punish whistleblowers like American hero Bradley Manning; reneging on commitment to Palestinian peace process and aiding and abetting Israel's illegal and brutal occupation; appointing enemies of Social Security to his cat food commission; etc.. etc.
The list just goes on and on ad nauseam. Please read and absorb the following before giving readers here lock-jaw:
http://obamascandalslist.blogspot.com/2009/10/table-of-contents.html
It's fascinating how many Obama shills and apologists are popping up this selection year. ("Selection" is not a typo.)
>>appointing enemies of Social Security to his cat food commission<<
while simultaneously gutting the Social Security payroll tax by 32% in order to hasten the collapse of that "entitlement" program that we have all paid for, a program that is self-financing and would not be in any kind of trouble if the politicians had not stolen its funding to spend on war, while promoting it as a tax cut for the middle class.
dkshaw: I blew a fuse when I read that. Shamus Cooke was the first one that I know of that wrote about Obama's "catfood commission" and when I told the Obots about it, they said, "Naw, he's a Democrat, he wouldn't do that!"
RE: Social Security. The payroll tax was cut from 6.2% to 4.2% and the MSM always tells us that it was cut 2 percentage points. A cut from 6.2% to 4.2% is a 32.3% cut in funds with held.
Instead of imposing the 6.2% tax on all incomes above the current income limit of $108,000, and ending the spending of the payroll tax on war just as soon as it is collected, they chose to gut the payroll tax receipts, continue spending them on war, and then claim that Social Security is a "transfer program" dependent upon regular tax receipts. And the politicians want to "cut entitlement programs" in order to balance the budget. Bastards.
Right on, Doug! You could add Obama's EGREGIOUS record on ignoring Global warming, and his kissing ass to the Big Energy Consortium (coal/oil/nuke power) while the nation experiences one set of environmental calamities after another. He'll sell out on the Canadian tar sands after doing his best Fred Astaire dance moves to the contrary; and he's mute on Fracking, even though it's configuring in earthquake activity! Not to mention the poisoning of precious water tables!
And you are so right about the election year pattern seen in apologists for a DEADLY status quo showing up in these threads to sing the chorus line of "Lesser of Evilism" ad nauseum.