Bad News for Republicans

The Republican Party in the United States, which has spent the last three-and-a-half years hoping the country did poorly, so President Obama would look bad, got a cold kick in the jaw today.

The Dow Jones Industrials and Standard & Poor's stock indices concluded the best quarter in 14 years and the Nasdaq average posted its best quarter in 21 years, all signs of a economy poised to surge.

The Dow gained 8.1%, or nearly 1,000 points since January, while the S&P 500 advanced 12% and the Nasdaq rose 19%. The stock market is usually a good indicator of future economic health.

House Passes GOP Budget Bill

The GOP budget plan calls for lowering taxes on the rich, raising taxes on the poor and dropping the corporation tax from 35% to 25%. The plan would make up for the lower revenue by cutting spending on Medicare.

Republicans Vote to Keep Big Oil Subsidy

At a time when oil companies are raking in billions if not trillions of dollars in profits created by their representatives who have bid up the price of oil on the exchange, Republicans in the United States Senate voted to keep subsidizing those same oil companies.

Continued Strength in Labor Market Fuels Economy

Don't look now, but the economy is beginning to surge. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits once again set a four-year low last week.

The Labor Department reported that, in a country of 300 million, 359,000 people filed for initial claims, down from the previous four-year low of 364,000 set last week.


Many economists see the four-week moving average as a better indicator of the health of the job market.  That average fell to 365,000, also a four-year low, confirming the weekly drop.


There has been a net gain of 245,000 jobs per month for the last three months, the best three-month increase in five years.  The unemployment rate has come down sharply from 9% to 8.3% in just five months.


The Business Roundtable, a group consisting of the CEO's of the nation's major companies, said that 42% expect to add workers in the next six months, another healthy sign of a growing economy.


For those that say, "Yeah, but the jobs are low-paying jobs", it is good that they are finally waking up to the value of Union jobs.  Unions fight for you and against your employer.  Without them, you're on your own and can be laid off merely because your boss doesn't like you.  The truth is if you want a high-paying job with great benefits, you need to form a Union with other like-minded employees.

D.C., Maryland & Wisconsin Next in GOP Presidential Race

The District of Columbia, Maryland and Wisconsin are next in the Republican race for the White House.  Mitt Romney is expected to win all three and if he does, would make it very tough on challenger Rick Santorum.


Looking more and more like we will have a race between two candidates who think a lot alike.

Obama Leads Republican Candidates By Huge Margin

A brand new CNN poll of registered voters indicates that President Obama would handily defeat either Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum if the election were held today. Obama would receive 54% of the vote compared to 43% for Romney, representing a six-point swing since just last month as voters hear more about the GOP candidates. Santorum fared worse, losing to Obama 55-42%.

Just 35% of independents have a favorable view of Romney, and of course are the key to November's election.  Favorable ratings also show a big advantage for Obama. 48% of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic party while the Republican party gets 35% favorable ratings and nearly six in ten Americans say they have an unfavorable view of the GOP, one of their lowest ratings since the Great Depression.  In fact, the last time the GOP was as high as the Democrats' current ratings was in 2008, the year Obama was elected President.  The fact that they have dropped 13% in four years does not bode well, either in the race for the president or for this year's Congressional races.

56% of Americans blame George W. Bush and the Republicans for the country's economic problems, compared to 29% that blame Obama and the Democrats.

Expect the Health Care Bill to Be Repealed

Supporters of the American health care law should have no illusions:  The Supreme Court is stacked with people who only think one way--it is "their way or the highway".  The "debate" over the health care reform law is not a debate at all, but a circus.  The Court will either throw out the entire bill or at least the mandate.


Actually it is the mandate that is the fairest part of the entire law.  Americans are under the misconception that the health care bill is socialism when nothing could be farther from the truth.  What we have now in the United States is socialized medicine--those who cannot afford health care can under the existing system that has been in place for decades go to an emergency room and get free health care, while that cost is subsidized by the rest of us in the form of higher costs for health insurance.  That is socialism.  What the new law does is force everyone to pay their fair share rather than being bailed out by the rest of us.  This point for some strange reason isn't being made.


In any case, the Court will overturn this law and we'll be back in the mess we were in before.  If they only throw out the mandate, which of course is the key part in ending socialized medicine, then the deficit will go up even higher as a result of the Court's decision.