Shortly before election day, some new signs started popping up all over the southern portion of Peoria. They said, “President Obama Needs You To Vote” in red, white and blue. At the bottom, it says in small letters, “Paid for by Friends of Jehan Gordon.” Interesting campaign strategy. She must feel that people who voted for Obama would naturally vote for her, too. But I’m still a little unclear on why Obama needs you to vote — “you” in this case being people who live in the southern part of Peoria and are voting for a state office.
Tag Archives: Barack Obama
Nobel to Obama
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in its citation. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”
At best, this seems premature to me. He’s only been in office nine months, and he has no diplomatic accomplishments (as even the New York Times acknowledges), only rhetoric. Has the Nobel Peace Prize become nothing more than a global popularity contest?
Obama speaks out against tax cheats
Since I posted the video of Schock’s reaction to Obama’s new tax policy, I thought it might be sporting to post the President’s announcement of his tax policy to kind of put things in perspective. Here’s what I found on the White House’s website:
What immediately made me laugh — not so much in amusement, but rather in disgust — was the fact that Tim “Tax Cheat” Geithner was introducing the whole thing. How can that guy stand up there and talk about tax cheats and not immediately get struck by lightning? Then Obama says this:
Nobody likes paying taxes, particularly in times of economic stress. But most Americans meet their responsibilities because they understand that it’s an obligation of citizenship, necessary to pay the costs of our common defense and our mutual well-being. And yet, even as most American citizens and businesses meet these responsibilities, there are others who are shirking theirs.
Yes, there certainly are. One of them is standing about five feet to your immediate right, Mr. President! Wow. It just doesn’t get any more hypocritical than that.
My dad, whenever he sees Geithner’s picture in the paper, immediately writes “TAX CHEAT” across Geithner’s forehead. I think that ought to be the standard in all newspapers and news reports across the country. I’m instituting it here at the Chronicle.
One more thing: I found this funny little parody of “Tax Man” by the Beatles on You Tube. It’s called “Tax Cheat (Tim Geithner Song)”:
President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary LaHood Call for U.S. High Speed Passenger Trains
It looks like the United States is finally going to get serious about modernizing its train system. Here’s a press release I received yesterday:
Vision for a New Era in Rail Entails Clean, Energy-Efficient Option for Travelers
Thursday, April 16, 2009 (Washington, DC) — President Barack Obama, along with Vice President Biden and Secretary LaHood, announced a new U.S. push today to transform travel in America, creating high-speed rail lines from city to city, reducing dependence on cars and planes and spurring economic development.
The President released a strategic plan outlining his vision for high speed rail in America. The plan identifies $8 billion provided in the ARRA and $1 billion a year for five years requested in the federal budget as a down payment to jump-start a potential world-class passenger rail system and sets the direction of transportation policy for the future. The strategic plan will be followed by detailed guidance for state and local applicants. By late summer, the Federal Railroad Administration will begin awarding the first round of grants.
Additional funding for long-term planning and development is expected from legislation authorizing federal surface transportation programs.
The report formalizes the identification of ten high-speed rail corridors as potential recipients of federal funding. Those lines are: California, Pacific Northwest, South Central, Gulf Coast, Chicago Hub Network, Florida, Southeast, Keystone, Empire and Northern New England. Also, opportunities exist for the Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston to compete for funds to improve the nation’s only existing high-speed rail service.
Obama elected President
Barack Obama is President Elect of the United States of America.
Obama begins paying back Springfield
Aaron Schock isn’t the only candidate paying back public costs of a campaign event. The State Journal-Register reports that presidential candidate Barack Obama has started paying back bills he received from Springfield.
Welcome, Rotarians!
Today, I had the privilege of speaking to the Peoria North Rotary. Matt Jones invited me to speak about the role of blogging in politics and public advocacy. This was the first time I had ever been to a Rotary meeting. I’ve always wondered what Rotary was all about; I’ve heard of it ever since I was a little kid and my grandfather would talk about being part of it.
So, to Matt and all the other Rotarians, thank you for having me; I had a very nice time and enjoyed meeting you.
And to the gentleman who asked me where Obama got his data for the assertion that “98% of small businesses make less than $250,000 a year,” it appears no one knows. But the New York Times thinks he may be correct:
According to figures compiled by the Small Business Administration, there are fewer than six million small businesses that actually have payrolls. The rest are so-called nonemployer firms that report income from hobbies or freelance work done by their registered owners, earning as little as $1,000 a year.
Of these, according to a calculation by the independent, non-partisan Tax Policy Center, fewer than 700,000 taxpayers would have to pay higher taxes under Mr. Obama’s plan. But even some of these are not small-business owners in the traditional sense; they include lawyers, accountants and investors in real estate, all of them with incomes that put them in the top tax brackets.
So are there “millions more like Joe the Plumber,” as Mr. McCain contended? Probably not. Mr. Obama may well have been correct when he stated that “98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000.”
Meanwhile, those who use the Small Business Administration’s guidelines come to a different conclusion:
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a “small business” according to its average annual receipts or the number of its employees. Here are examples from the SBA’s Table of Small Business Size Standards setting forth the maximum average annual receipts by industry that a business can have and still be classified as a small business:
Crop production of all types — $750,000
Animal production except for cattle & chicken/eggs — $750,000
Cattle feedlots — $2.5M
Chicken/egg production — $12.5M
Forestry & logging — $7M
Fishing — $4M
Irrigation, sewage, water supplies — $7M
Housing construction — $33.5M
Heavy and civil engineering construction — $33.5M
Dredging and cleanup — $20M
Concrete, framing, and other housing contractors — $14M
Car dealers — $23-29M
RV, motorcycle, & boat dealers — $7M
Furniture, hardware, clothing & sporting good stores — $7M
Electronic stores — $9M
Supermarkets, gas stations & department stores — $27M
Pharmacies — $7MThere are many more examples at the link. In addition, most of the industries in the Table […] are considered small businesses based on their total number of employees instead of average annual receipts. In those industries, the cut-off between small and large businesses ranges from 500-1,000 employees per business/industry.
It’s difficult for me to imagine a business that has 50 or more employees (let alone 500-1,000) that has receipts of less than $250,000 per year. And, given the SBA definitions of “small business,” it seems likely that many small businesses in a wide range of industries have receipts of more than $250,000 per year.
So, like I said, nobody knows, and Obama isn’t telling where he got his figures.