Obama is using the Cloward-Piven Strategy. Overwhelm the system so it crashes.

Direct payments. The amount of money the federal government hands out in direct payments to individuals steadily increased over the past four decades, but shot up under Obama, climbing by almost $600 billion — a 32% increase — in his first three years. And Obama’s last budget called for these payments to climb another $500 billion by 2016, at which point they would account for fully two-thirds of all federal spending.

People getting benefits. According to the Census Bureau 49% now live in homes where at least one person gets a federal benefit — Social Security, workers comp, unemployment, subsidized housing, and the like. That’s up from 44% the year before Obama took office, and way up from 1983, when fewer than a third were government beneficiaries.

Food stamps. This year, more than 46 million (15% of all Americans) will get food stamps. That’s 45% higher than when Obama took office, and twice as high as the average for the previous 40 years. This surge was driven in part by the recession, but also because Obama boosted the benefit amount as part of his stimulus plan.

Disability. The number of people on Social Security disability has steadily climbed since the 1970s, thanks mainly to easier eligibility rules. But their numbers jumped 10% in Obama’s first two years in office, according to the Social Security Administration. That sharp rise was due largely to meager job prospects since the recession ended in 2009. When employment opportunities are scarce, experts note, many who could otherwise work sign up for disability benefits instead.

H/T to Investors

That’s the final, pathetic growth number for 2011.

From Business Insider:

From the just-released GDP report:

Real GDP increased 1.7 percent in 2011 (that is, from the 2010 annual level to the 2011 annual level), compared with an increase of 3.0 percent in 2010.

The increase in real GDP in 2011 primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from state and local government spending, private inventory investment, and federal government spending.  Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

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From ABCNews:

LAS VEGAS – President Obama refused to pick favorites in the Republican field or wade deeper into the heated primary-season rhetoric, declaring, “Until the Republicans have a nominee, we don’t have a campaign.”

In an interview with Spanish language network Univision, recorded in Arizona one day after his Tuesday State of the Union address, the president was challenged to defend his own campaign-style speeches as he travels the country. He denied that he is campaigning.

“My general instinct is to focus on doing my job because my attitude is, if I’m doing my job well, people will recognize it, and the politics will follow,” he said. “Some people may interpret that as campaigning. I consider that to be important to my leadership in governing this country.”

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From Politico:

President Barack Obama’s third year in office elicited some of the most polarized job approval ratings ever, as the differences between Republican and Democratic views of the president stood at near record highs, a new survey shows.

In 2011, 80 percent of Democrats approved of Obama’s job performance, compared to 12 percent of Republicans, according to Gallup.

The gap of 68 percent is the fourth-highest on record, going back to the Eisenhower administration, the pollster said.

Only President George W. Bush’s fourth, fifth and sixth years in office showed higher degrees of polarization.

It appears that the past decade has seen some of the most polarized views on the presidency. Together, the Bush and Obama administrations account for the seven most polarized years on record, and eight of the Top 10.

Despite all this, the polarization is likely to get even worse in 2012.

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Well foreigners usually hate American ideals so of course they would love a progressive liberal who is trying to turn America into Europe by redistributing US worldwide.

Via Politico:

Investors in the U.S. would rather see Mitt Romney as the country’s next president than President Barack Obama, while those outside of the U.S. would prefer no change in the Oval Office, according to a new poll Thursday.

Romney, who touts his business and executive experience as his biggest assets on the campaign trail, is preferred three-to-one by U.S. investors, while investors overseas prefer Obama two-to-one, according to a Bloomberg survey that polled 1,209 investors, traders and analysts from around the world.

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To show you how much the media is pushing Romney as their GOP choice, Politico didn’t report that US investors also prefer Newt Gingrich over Obama. The media is so scared to see an Obama/Gingrich debate.

From The Hill:

Retiring congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will marry his longtime partner, Jim Ready.

Frank and Ready plan to wed in Massachusetts. Frank’s home state is one of six states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that permits gay marriage.

Frank announced in November that he would be retiring from Congress after 16 terms to pursue other opportunities. In 1987, Frank disclosed that he was gay, becoming the first openly gay member of Congress.

He was outed by his gay partner who happened to be a prostitute and ran a brothel out of Frank’s home. Frank’s pleaded ignorant to having knowledge about the brothel being ran from HIS HOUSE.

Ready and Frank have known each other since they met in 2005 at a fundraiser in Maine, and began a relationship in January of 2007 after Ready’s partner died. Ready works as a photographer and has a small buisness doing custom awnings, carpentry, painting, and welding according to Frank’s office.

Ready, like many political spouses, has occasionally found himself in the headlines. He was arrested in 2007 for growing marijuana outside his Maine home; Frank was present at the time he was arrested. Ready later pleaded guilty to a fine for civil possession, and related charges were dropped.

“I told him that our relationship could not develop if he could not promise me that he would not repeat this. He apologized, with great sincerity I believe, and he made that promise and has lived up to it,” Frank said in a statement in 2010.

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Destroying Jobs LIke No Other

Instead of cutting money from his spending spree, Obama, and the Democrats, are gleefully cutting the defense budget while putting our military men/women on the unemployment line.

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon took the first major step toward shrinking its budget after a decade of war as it announced Thursday that it wanted to limit pay raises for troops, increase health insurance fees for military retirees and close bases in the United States.

Although the pay-raise limits were described as modest, and would not start until 2015, they are certain to ignite a political fight in Congress, which since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has almost always raised military salaries beyond what the Pentagon has recommended.

Increasing health insurance fees for retirees and closing bases are also fraught with political risk, particularly when Republican presidential candidates are charging that President Obama is debilitating the military.

Didn’t Obama promise lower health care costs and insurance premiums ($2500 in savings) thanks to his health care law? Guess its not working so great.

Next year’s Pentagon budget is to be $525 billion, down from $531 billion this fiscal year. Even though the Defense Department has been called on to find $259 billion in cuts in the next five years — and $487 billion over the decade — its base budget (not counting the costs of Afghanistan or other wars) will rise to $567 billion by 2017. But when adjusted for inflation, the increases are small enough that they will amount to a slight cut of 1.6 percent of the Pentagon’s base budget over the next five years.

Nonetheless, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said he was working with about $500 billion less than he had anticipated having on hand through 2017, meaning that the Pentagon had to trim personnel and favorite high-profile weapons programs. “This has been tough work,” Mr. Panetta said at an hourlong news conference.

He said that the Army would be reduced over five years to 490,000 troops, down from a peak of 570,000, and that the Marines would be cut to 182,000, down from 202,000. (Ground forces would still be slightly larger than they were before 9/11.) The Pentagon initially will buy fewer F-35 Joint Strike Fighter stealth jets, which are not expected to be in service until at least 2017 and have the distinction of being one of the costliest weapons programs in history. In the Navy, 14 warships will be either retired early or built more slowly.

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This isn’t the first time Joe made a racial comment about Indians.

Joe is safe from media scrutiny. He’s a white liberal thus this is not racism.