Fiscal Cliff: Obama Calls On Congress To Pass Scaled-Down Package (VIDEO)

Obviously I can only speculate as to motive(s).  I don't think it's one motive, or that they all share the same motive.  A number of them are motivated by the Republican Party's policies'  philosophy (that links all their policies, e.g., business owners over workers, white men's rights over women's and minorities' rights, military spending and might over diplomatic and UN and domestic spending, unregulated capitalism over union workers and job safety and working conditions, etc.  

There is a herd mentality (particularly in the House of Representatives), it's not unlike high school, with a deference to authority (to their party's leadership, the hierarchy within government, the monied interests that sent them to Washington, et al), and a good number of them really are not any smarter than a box of hammers (Louis Gohmert from Texas is one example).  When it comes to Obama's motives, I think he's sympathetic to banking interests (I think Obama's a DINO, a Trojan horse, and was never interested in governing as a populist - His record in the White House, in the Illinois State Senate and biography inform me of that).  

I can give you some links (that include other links) that can help show you what forms my thinking on the matter:

This is the one that nobody but a very few talk about, and the one that may best explain the economic catastrophe bearing down on us and what's motivating the powers that be - 
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2008-03-10/finance/30753760_1_derivatives-bubble-subprime

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli/climate-change-president_b_2341543_216251777.html

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bridge-Barack-Obama-Vintage/dp/037570230X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356396259&sr=8-2&keywords=david+remnick

There are other citations that I regularly include in my comments - Click on the colored text.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli?action=comments

Happy Holidays and the best of luck to you and yours.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Obama Agenda Provides Long Work List To Tackle When He Returns

Real US unemployment: More than 15%:

While the official US unemployment rate lies just above 8 percent, real jobless rates are almost three times that high in some states, with the national “real” unemployment rate lying at 15 percent in July.

The US government’s official unemployment rate, now at 8.1 percent, only takes into consideration those who have no job and are looking for work. This number is called a “U-3” rate. It does not count those who have stopped looking for work or who are working part-time.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics takes these other factors into consideration for data it calls the “U-6” – and these numbers are shockingly higher.

U-6 data includes “discouraged workers,” which the Bureau defines as people not in the labor force, but want and are available for work and had looked for a job in the prior year.

Those who have not looked for work in the prior month are not included in the U-3 unemployment rate.

The national U-6 rate is 15.3 percent, but some states have a shockingly higher individual rate.

Nevada’s U-6 unemployment rate is 22.1 percent – the highest in the country. The rate is almost three times higher than what it was in 2007, at 7.6 percent.

California has a rate of 20.3 percent, while Rhode Island lies at 18.3 percent.

Only three states have U-6 unemployment rates beneath 10 percent, and only one state (North Dakota at 6.1 percent, the lowest in the country) has a rate lower than the official U-3 unemployment rate.

About AP
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...