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Desperate for jobs, youth flee Obama
by Paul Bedard

America’s youth vote, which turned out in record numbers in 2008 and gave a historically high percentage of their support to President Obama, has soured on him because they are having a hard time finding work and, as a result, are putting off major decisions like getting married and starting a family

Obama, who won 66 percent of the 24 million voters age 18-29 in 2008, has seen that support slashed. And in a new poll from Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit that seeks to engage younger voters, only 31 percent approve of Obama’s handling of youth unemployment, a number that threatens to rob him of the voter group that pushed him to victory.

“Ironically for President Obama,” said the group’s president, Paul Conway, “the hardcore reality is that young voters are now very dissatisfied with the direction of the country and are becoming more vocal in their demands for real jobs rather than promises of more unpaid internships and unproven programs.”

https://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/desperate-jobs-youth-flee-obama/378596

>THE DEAL TO EXTEND THE PAYROLL TAX CUT IS YET ANOTHER STRAW ON THE CAMEL’S BACK
By Ian Linker
February 15, 2012

So, House Republican leaders have agreed to extend the payroll tax cut extension for the rest of the year without offsetting the extension with spending cuts. This sweetheart is one more straw straining the camel’s back.

The so-called leaders will say that politically they were cornered. They’ll say, with the Democrats in control of the Senate and a Democrat sitting in the White House, we had no choice. They’ll say at least we avoided a tax increase. They’ll say this is an election year and with 160 million workers subject to a payroll tax increase if we let the cut expire at the end of February, the consequences would be far too costly. Much of this is true.  But man up. What is truly at stake, and what seems to be lost on every one who signs onto this deal, is America’s long-term future.

We are at a crossroads in this country. Do we want to shrink the size of government to return it to its Constitutional constraints? Do we want to get this economy moving in the right direction for the long term that will again make us the envy of the world? Do we want to stop mortgaging our children’s future and kicking our problems down the road? Or do we want to drive off the cliff with our foot on the accelerator? Or, to be fair, do we want to take our foot off the gas and let our momentum take us over the cliff?

So Congress wants to extend the payroll tax cut? Fine, but do so in a fiscally responsible manner that will not jeopardize our fragile economy. Do so in a manner that will not add to our staggering nearly $15.5 trillion debt. Put simply: the government needs to figure out a way to end its profligate ways, make real and durable spending cuts, balance the budget, and pay down the debt or before long we will be looking at a big fat Greek-style austerity.

There is no question the middle class deserve tax relief and should have tax relief. But the tax code needs systemic reform that will simplify the code, facilitate long-term economic growth, create millions of private-sector jobs, and expand the tax base to ensure that everyone is paying taxes, who should be paying taxes. Tax reform will give the middle class and all taxpayers much needed relief and facilitate strong economic growth.

Our representatives in Washington must stop playing politics and must start acting on principle. Every deal struck is one more straw added to the camel’s back. Perhaps the cost of each straw is nominal. But in the aggregate, the straws are beginning to have an effect – and it ain’t pretty. The camel’s back is beginning to weaken. Each straw pushes us closer to a point of no return. Each straw is heaped on without addressing the main issues: spending reform, tax reform, entitlement reform, and regulatory reform. Each straw takes us farther and farther away from our goal: to restore America as the shiny city on the hill for future generations.
Ian Linker is an attorney and a former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey.

>Times Correspondent to Address Ridgewood A.M. Rotary Club
on Military and Veterans Issues

James Dao, national correspondent for military and veterans affairs for The New York Times, will speak at a meeting of the Ridgewood A.M. Rotary Club from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., Thursday, February 23, at Osteria La Fiamma, 119 East Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood.

Dao, who lives in Glen Rock, has traveled far and wide on his military beat. It has taken him from Fort Jackson to cover the first woman to become the Army’s top drill sergeant; to Fort Sill to write about aging Army recruits in basic training; and to Afghanistan to report on American troops in Operation Enduring Freedom. He has also profiled Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki and written extensively on post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dao was a Pentagon correspondent for The Times’ Washington bureau during 9/11 and later was embedded with Special Operations Forces during the Iraq invasion in 2003. He also has covered the State Department and Congress and was part of The Times’ national political team during the 2000 presidential election.
Prior to joining The Times in 1992, Dao was a reporter for the New York Daily News, where he was lead writer on a series about the people-smuggling industry in China. Earlier, he was a political reporter for The Record of Hackensack.

Guests are welcome to attend the meeting. A full buffet breakfast will be served at a cost of $11. Please contact the Ridgewood A.M. Rotary Club at 201-637-7335 so that extra breakfast settings can be arranged. Please leave a number where you can be reached that morning, in case major breaking news calls James Dao away from the meeting.

>Obama’s Class-Warfare, Tax-the-Rich Budget
By Larry Kudlow, February 14, 2012

If you shake out the Obama budget in terms of bold headlines, it’s really a class-warfare, tax-the-rich budget. Layer upon layer of tax hikes are piled on successful investors, small-business owners, and corporations.
The capital-gains tax goes from 15 percent to 24 percent (including Obamacare). The dividends tax goes from 15 percent to nearly 40 percent, and that’s not including the double tax on corporate profits embodied in dividends and capital gains. The Bush tax cuts for top earners are repealed. There’s the 30 percent Buffett-rule minimum tax on millionaires. The carried-interest tax for private equity, hedge funds, and other investment partnerships goes from 15 to 39.6 percent. The estate tax jumps to 45 percent. State and local bond interest deductions are severely limited. Oil and gas companies get hit. So do banks. And there’s probably more stuff in there I haven’t read yet. (Jimmy P. lays it out nicely.) Paul Ryan’s press release calls it a $1.9 trillion tax hike, with $47 trillion in government spending over the next decade and the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits. . .

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/290972/obama-s-class-warfare-tax-rich-budget-larry-kudlow