Poll: Most Georgians approve of Obama

Master Isolated Images/http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1962

According to a new Gallup poll, a slight majority of Georgians approve of President Obama’s job performance.  By a margin of 48 to 44 percent, Georgians favor the president.  The approval rating is actually one point higher than the percentage of the vote that Obama won in Georgia in 2008.

 

While not in the top ten Obama-approving states, at number twenty Georgia ranks higher than many of the swing states from the 2008 election.  This fact is somewhat surprising considering the size of the Republican victory in Georgia in 2010.

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Barack Obama’s awful, no good, very bad day

His bad day is worse for us. (Elizabeth Cromwell/Wikimedia)

Barack Obama has had a bad day.  His bad day actually started last Friday when the stock market dropped 500 points on news of Europe’s failure to deal with its own debt crisis.  After the close of markets that day, Standard and Poors, one of the rating agencies for financial bonds, made a long feared announcement that it was downgrading the credit rating of the United States.  To make matters worse, the U.S. federal debt was revealed to have reached 100 percent of GDP a few days earlier, a milestone not seen since 1947.

 

Over the weekend, investors and ordinary Americans (who are one and the same if they have a pension, an IRA, or a 401k) contemplated how the downgrade would affect Wall Street and Main Street.  To add to the somber mood, on Saturday, August 6, an Afghan insurgent shot down a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter killing thirty Americans, including members of a U.S. Navy SEAL team.  Seven Afghan soldiers and a civilian interpreter were also killed.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Barack Obama’s awful, no good, very bad day – Atlanta Conservative | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/barack-obama-s-awful-no-good-very-bad-day#ixzz1UV0X0Lg5

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What the downgrade of federal debt means to you

What happens on Wall St. and in Washington affects Main St. (Roland Weber)

When the world financial markets open today, it will be the first chance that they have had to react to the news of the downgraded U.S. debt.  The announcement of the downgrade by Standard and Poors came last Friday after the close of the markets on a day that had already seen a huge decline in stock markets around the world.

 

As Georgians learned in 2008, what happens on Wall Street and Washington affects lives in Georgia.  The financial crisis that began in New York’s banks and investment houses froze credit in Atlanta and caused the local real estate market to crash.  Next, new construction projects stalled and Georgia’s unemployment rate skyrocketed as the effects of the deepening recession spread throughout the state and the country.

 

Read the rest of this article on Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/what-the-downgrade-of-federal-debt-means-to-you

The debt limit and default: What it means and how it will affect you

As the deadline for an agreement on raising the debt ceiling approaches on August 2, it remains to be seen whether the Democrats and Republicans in Congress can reach a compromise that will allow the federal government to continue to meet its obligations.  Many Americans do not understand the background of the debt limit debate.  Many others don’t believe that it will have an impact on them.

 

The debt limit is the congressionally imposed limit on borrowing.  According to Factcheck.org, the federal government is currently borrowing thirty-six cents for every dollar that it spends.  Part of the problem is that tax revenues have fallen since the onset of the recession in 2008, while federal spending has increased.  When the federal government reaches the limit of what Congress allows it to borrow, it will have to begin choosing what bills to pay and which ones to default on.

 

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Social Security and the debt limit

Ida May Fuller, the first SSI recipient (Public Domain)

President Obama’s warning that a failure to increase the debt limit may mean that there is not enough money in the federal treasury to send out Social Security checks should put a stake through the heart of the myth that there is a Social Security trust fund.  In an interview with CBS News, President Obama said, “I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”

 

For decades now, Social Security has been sold to the American public as a retirement plan.  Many Americans believe that their Social Security taxes go into an account that is held for them until they retire.  In reality, Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program in which current tax receipts are used to pay the benefits for current retirees.

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The first fight of 2011

Will the federal debt clock soon reverse? This photo was taken in April 2008. The current debt is over $14 trillion. (Jesper Rautell Balle)

Georgia’s congressional delegation became more Republican this year, partly on the promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. Now, as the new congressional term begins, one of the first actions taken will likely be a vote in the House of Representatives for repeal. This vote, however, will not mark the first real fight of 2011.

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http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/the-debt-ceiling-will-spark-2011-s-first-fight