Archives

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

400-408 – Lisa Anderson, program director for young adults at Focus on the Family and host of their Boundless Show podcast (boundless.org).  Focus on the Family can be heard weekdays at 4:30am, 7:30am, 11:30am, and 10:00pm.

413-423 – The Left has been sitting on this 49-minute "secret video" since it was posted anonymously during the RNC in Tampa three weeks ago.  Jimmy Carter's grandson tracked down the original source who recorded it at a fundraiser at Marc Leder's home in Boca Raton on May 17, 2012.  When it was first posted, there was a little Twitter activity, but over the weekend the Obama media coordinated their coverage to come out Monday morning.  

Here's what you need to know:  47% of households do not pay federal income taxes, but 60% of them do pay payroll taxes.  Only 18% of households pay neither payroll taxes nor federal income taxes.  47% receive a check from the government of which more than half are means tested welfare checks (Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, etc.)  36% of all Americans of working age are either not working or looking for work.

428-438 – Calls 

(2X) • YouTube (9/18/2012) Obama In 1998: "I Actually Believe In Redistribution."  At an October 19, 1998 conference at Loyola University, Barack Obama spoke against "propaganda" that said government doesn't work and the need to "pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution."

443-452 – Romney Audio #1

• David Corn (Mother Jones, 9/18/2012) WATCH: Full Secret Video of Private Romney Fundraiser.

(5X) • David Corn (Mother Jones, 9/17/2012) SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters.  When he doesn't know a camera's rolling, the GOP candidate shows his disdain for half of America.

• Damian Paletta and John D. McKinnon (WSJ, 9/18/2012) The Data Behind Romney's 47% Comments.

Entitlements:

According to the Census Bureau, 49% of Americans in the second quarter of 2011 lived in a household where at least one member received a government benefit. (The total population at the time was 305 million).  That's up from 30% in the 1980s and 44.4% in the third quarter of 2008, a recent growth in part attributable to the bad economy of President Obama's first term.  The Census Bureau broke the data down like this:

26.4% of U.S. households had someone enrolled in Medicaid (the health-care program for low-income Americans)

16.2% of households had at least one member receiving Social Security.

15.8% lived in a household receiving food stamps

14.9% had a member with Medicare benefits

4.5% of households received assistance with their rent

1.7% had a member receiving unemployment benefits.

The large majority of Medicare and Social Security recipients have paid payroll taxes in many cases for decades to qualify for those benefits. //

• Dick Morris (Fox News, 9/18/2012) Mitt Romney is right.

49% of all Americans pay no fed income tax

47% receive a check from the government of which more than half are means tested welfare checks (Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, etc.)

36% of all Americans of working age are either not working or looking for work.

The benefits Romney was talking about are means tested benefits, distributed based on income. All together 100 million Americans receive such benefits (out of a total population of 308 million), these benefits include welfare, food stamps, Section 8 housing, Medicaid and other such programs.  

The danger comes not with the benefit but with the sense of entitlement. Why do so many people feel Romney will be better at improving the economy and yet still plan to vote for Obama? The answer is that they care more about preserving their entitlements than about improving the economy. They have come to rely on political action more than economic growth as the key to their solvency.

•• Nancy Cook (National Journal, 9/17/2012) COVER STORY – The 51 Percent  Is it good policy that half of all households pay no federal income tax? Some conservatives don't think so.

// The Earned Income Tax Credit is a big reason why 51 percent of households pay no federal income tax. One of roughly 200 tax expenditures on the books, the EITC allows working families making under $49,000 (with three children) or $41,000 (with one child) to receive a refundable tax credit. The size of the credit depends on marital status and family size. Working couples also qualify if their combined income is below $18,700. The credit often refunds more money than people pay, thereby kicking some off the federal income-tax rolls.  In 2009 alone, about 27 million families and individuals claimed the credit.

// The cost of the EITC has ballooned along with the number of people taking advantage of it. In 1975, when President Nixon successfully pushed for an enacted the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, the break cost the government $1.25 million a year. That year 6,215 families received an average credit of $200, according to records from the House Ways and Means Committee.

By 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, about 27 million families and individuals claimed the credit, at a cost of $52.8 billion per year. Families with children collected, on average, about $2,770, while families without children got about $259.

// 60% of households that owed no income tax in 2011 paid payroll taxes. Just 18% of households paid neither payroll taxes nor federal income taxes. Most of them were elderly couples or individuals making less than $20,000.

•• Hot Air (9/17/2012) Romney: Obama's 47% of the electorate is dependent on government.

•• David French (NRO Corner, 9/10/2012) Why Is This Election Close? Big Government and Delegated Virtue.

458-508 – Romney Audio #2

512-523 – Romney Audio #3-4-5

• LINER – Join us this Saturday September 22nd at the Crowne Plaza in Garden Grove for our next free Financial Restoration Seminar, beginning at 9am, featuring experts with real solutions for your very real financial problems.  Come out early and enjoy a free light-breakfast on us!  Door prizes include a 2-night hotel stay and restaurant gift cards!  Register for this free conference at kkla.com, keyword "financial."  Topics may include:  Avoid Losing Your Home, Loan Modifications, The Benefits of a Short Sale vs. Foreclosure, Debt Consolidation vs. Bankruptcy, Rebuilding Credit and Gaining Insights on How to Keep you Family at Peace While Dealing with Financial Pressure.

528-539 – •• Ramesh Ponnuru (NRO, 11/21/2011) The Freeloader Myth.

// There is a certain plausibility to the claim that the more people fall off the income-tax rolls, the more will support federal activism. But there is a series of evidentiary hurdles that this claim cannot begin to overcome. There is no evidence that changes in the percentage of people who pay income tax has had any effect on public opinion, let alone a large one. The U.S. that began the Democrats' 40-year reign in the House of Representatives in 1954 had roughly the same percentage of non-payers of income tax (24.9) as the U.S. that ended it in 1994 (24.4). A relatively large proportion of the citizenry paid income taxes in the early 1960s. It didn't stop the Great Society from being enacted. The number of people who pay no income taxes moved up fast between 2006 and 2010, which has helped set off conservative alarms. But voters turned sharply right between the elections of those two years. //

544-554 – () Romney Responds to the video.

The Blaze (9/18/2012) IS THE 'FULL' SECRET VIDEO OF ROMNEY AT FUNDRAISER REALLY UNEDITED? WE MAY HAVE PROOF OTHERWISE.

() Steve Hayes on Fox

558-608 – (3X) • David Corn (Mother Jones, 9/18/2012) SECRET VIDEO: On Israel, Romney Trashes Two-State Solution.  At a private fundraiser, the GOP candidate calls Middle East peace "almost unthinkable" and says he would "kick the ball down the field."

612-623 – Calls

LINER – Hey Couples, listen up!  How's your marriage?  What would he say?  What would she say?  You guys need an uplifting course to bring the spark back to what it used to be?  Then sign up to attend an Art of Marriage Weekend at a location near you for this month only!  This 2-day event offers a fresh and unique approach that will help you build that God-honoring marriage you desire!  For more info and to find locations near you, go to kkla.com, keyword "marriage."

628-641 – Calls

644-656 – Richard Kennedy invites everyone to our Financial Restoration Seminar this Saturday.

• LINER – Join us this Saturday September 22nd at the Crowne Plaza in Garden Grove for our next free Financial Restoration Seminar, beginning at 9am, featuring experts with real solutions for your very real financial problems.  Come out early and enjoy a free light-breakfast on us!  Door prizes include a 2-night hotel stay and restaurant gift cards!  Register for this free conference at kkla.com, keyword "financial."  Topics may include:  Avoid Losing Your Home, Loan Modifications, The Benefits of a Short Sale vs. Foreclosure, Debt Consolidation vs. Bankruptcy, Rebuilding Credit and Gaining Insights on How to Keep you Family at Peace While Dealing with Financial Pressure.

• Mark Steyn (NRO, 9/15/2012) Disgrace in Benghazi.

• Gallup (9/17/2012) Majority in U.S. Still Say Government Doing Too Much.

• Michael Shear (NYT, 9/17/2012) Romney Talks Bluntly of Those Dependent on Government.

• The Blaze (9/17/2012) ROMNEY REVEALED: 47 PERCENT OF AMERICANS WILL VOTE OBAMA NO MATTER WHAT BECAUSE THEY WANT GOV'T TO TAKE CARE OF THEM.

• Huffington Post (9/17/2012) Mitt Romney Video: Barack Obama Voters 'Dependent On Government' (UPDATED).

•• Ramesh Ponnuru (NRO, 11/21/2011) The Freeloader Myth.

•• Nancy Cook (National Journal, 9/17/2012) COVER STORY – The 51 Percent  Is it good policy that half of all households pay no federal income tax? Some conservatives don't think so.

•• Hot Air (9/17/2012) Romney: Obama's 47% of the electorate is dependent on government.

•• David French (NRO Corner, 9/10/2012) Why Is This Election Close? Big Government and Delegated Virtue.

• John Nolte (9/17/2012) LEFT-WING SITE UNEARTHS VIDEO OF ROMNEY... TALKING LIKE A CONSERVATIVE; UPDATE: ROMNEY RESPONDS.

• Jerusalem Post (9/18/2012) Video: Republican Mitt Romney lambastes 2-state solution.