Greetings to our constituents, fellow Floridians, and all Americans. I pray you had a wonderful weekend and are getting a great start to your Monday.
I pray that my fellow Americans in the Jewish community in South Florida, and all across the world, enjoyed very blessed High Holy Days concluding with Yom Kippur. May your name be written in the Book of Life.
This segues into the topic of the United Nations General Assembly speeches of this week. It can be no more evident that we must identify and confront the clear and present danger and evil of our time. We cannot retract from this challenge and believe that rhetoric without resolve and vigilance is the answer.
If we go down the path of Sir Neville Chamberlain and accept the premise that dictators, despots, autocrats, and theocrats can be handled with a policy of appeasement then we threaten the future security for our children and grandchildren. Furthermore, if we fail to recognize the terror and the attacks perpetrated by radical, barbarian Islamists, we embolden our enemy.
We can no longer refer to terrorist attacks as “man-caused disasters.” We cannot refer to this current global conflagration as an “overseas contingency operation.” We can no longer believe that you simply end a war by leaving and declaring that you have “kept a promise.”
As a former Combat Commander, I can attest to the fact that no warrior seeks to promote war, but all warriors answer the call of their country.
We no longer speak in terms of victory and certain defeat of our enemy. We seek to placate and even use taxpayer funds to issue apologies. It is simple: weakness is provocative in every way.
A week ago this past Friday, I addressed the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County Roundtable and carefully laid out the situation in the Middle East and the Maghreb (North Africa). Our disengagement has left our best ally, Israel, isolated in the dark sea of terror at a critical time for her existence.
The Taliban has a saying, “Americans have watches, but we have the time.”
There must be a credible military threat that is viable and poses a serious concern to the Ahmadinejads, Morsis, and Zawahiris of the world. Unfortunately, with sequestration looming, we are telegraphing our recalcitrance to honor Ronald Reagan’s principle of “peace through strength.”
The story behind the terrorist attacks on the 11th anniversary of 9-11 in Libya just keeps getting worse. It comes down to purposeful deceit or unmitigated incompetence -- either is unacceptable.
In closing, the downward revision of the Second Quarter Gross Domestic Produce growth number to 1.3 percent reiterates the horrible position in which we find the economic security of America.
Americans must ask themselves: What is more important? Likeability or leadership?
The media is falling all over itself to claim the economy has recovered. Millions dropped off the rolls? No problem. All part time jobs? No problem. The objective is to re-elect liberals, not report facts.
Greetings to our constituents, fellow Floridians, and indeed all Americans. It is time again for our weekly update for dissemination.
My biggest concern from this past week is the numbers from the monthly jobs report released on Friday. There is no doubt that we all want to alleviate the suffering of our fellow Americans from this horrific epidemic of joblessness. However, it is the manner by which we are “recovering” that has me somewhat scratching my head.
You see, a savvy Commander always looks for trends and inconsistencies in order to understand the battlefield and develop a sound strategy. In this case, I have been absolutely perplexed with the amount of statistical revisions emanating from the Obama Administration.
Case in point, last year in the final quarter of 2011, October through December, we were initially told the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was at 3%. That number was later revised upward to 4.1%. Two quarters later the GDP growth number for Second Quarter 2012 was reported to be at 1.7%. Yet, just a month ago that number was revised downward to 1.5%.
The September jobs report put national unemployment at 7.8%, down from 8.1%. Amazingly enough, that is the exact same number from January 2009.
However, there was no change to the workforce participation rate, which remains at a 30-year low at 63.6%. Accompanying that is the fact that the U6 computation, which includes unemployed, underemployed, and discouraged Americans who are no longer counted, remained unchanged at 14.7%.
How is it that the national unemployment rate could drop .3% yet not yield commensurate change in other measurable categories?
In South Florida, we still face very high percentages: Palm Beach County in the mid 9%, Broward County hovering around 8 %, Martin County almost 10%, and St. Lucie County near 13%. We are not seeing this major shift down here in our little piece of paradise.
The Thursday before the monthly jobs report, we were told there had been an increase in first time jobless applications, up from last month.
Regardless of this 7.8% report, the Obama Administration stimulus promised in its projections an unemployment rate somewhere between 5.8%-6% at this point in time. Therefore, we still blew almost a trillion dollars and fell short of designed expectations.
Well, at least we did drop $2 billion from last year’s deficit of $1.3 trillion to come in at $1.1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It is still our fourth straight trillion-dollar-plus deficit. Supposedly, President Obama was going to cut that deficit in half.
Remember, the deficit was “only” $458 billion in 2008, President George W. Bush’s last year, and Bush had to contend with a United States House of Representatives run by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a United States Senate run by Majority Leader Harry “Where’s That Budget” Reid.
10 Key Facts on Jobs and Unemployment:
1. 4.1 Million Fewer Jobs than Projected: In January 2009, the Obama Administration forecast there would be 137.6 million jobs in December 2010. Instead, there were 130.3 million jobs in December 2010. Even 21 months later in September 2012, there are just 133.5 million jobs – 4.1 million fewer than the Administration’s forecast for late 2010.
2. Slower Jobs Recovery than during the Great Depression: This is the only “recovery” since World War II that the jobs lost in the recession had not been recovered by this point. In fact, the recent pace of job creation during the “Obama recovery” has been slower than during the Great Depression.
3. Less Full Time Work: Since January 2009, the number of full-time employees has fallen by more than 600,000 while part-time employment has grown by almost 1.4 million. This means part-time workers account for all of the net employment growth in the Obama years – the opposite of what Democrats predicted when they said their stimulus plan was “likely to move many workers from part-time to full-time work.”
4. Manufacturing Jobs Down: Since January 2009, more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs have been eliminated---the opposite of the Administration’s projected increase of 408,000 manufacturing jobs due to their trillion-dollar stimulus.
5. Ten Times More New Dropouts than New Employees: During the Obama Administration, the number of people not in the labor force has grown by 8.2 million, while total employment has grown by less than 800,000. This means that during the Obama years, new workforce dropouts have outnumbered new employees by 10 to 1.
6. Far Higher Unemployment Rate than Projected: September’s 7.8% unemployment rate remains far above the 5.5% rate the Administration predicted for this month in their January 2009 report on the projected effects of stimulus. Democrats actually predicted unemployment would fall to 7.8% in September 2009 – a full three years ago.
7. Real Unemployment Is Almost 11%: If the unemployment rate included the “invisible unemployed” (discouraged workers who dropped out or never joined the workforce), the September 2012 unemployment rate would be 10.9%.
8. More Unemployed Now than When Economy Was in “Free-Fall”: In September 2012, there were 12.1 million officially unemployed workers. That’s 39,000 more than when President Obama took office in January 2009 – when the Administration said “we were in economic free-fall.”
9. Two Million More Long-term Unemployed: In September 2012, there were 4.8 million long-term unemployed for more than six months – more than two million more than when President Obama took office in January 2009.
10. Economic Misery up 80%: The “Obama Misery Index” shows that unemployment and debt have risen by a combined 80% since the start of the Obama Administration.
This all reminds me of a certain novel, “1984” by George Orwell.
Greetings to our Constituents, fellow Floridians, and indeed all Americans. It is Friday, October 12th and time to prepare our weekly update for dissemination.
I must begin by discussing what has to be a most disturbing issue for the American people, the Benghazi Consulate terrorist attack. This week, the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing on this incident and we are still receiving conflicting messages and information.
Anyone suggesting this is a “politicized” issue is just trying to preclude the truth from becoming evident to the American people. A very serious mistake was made and it cost the lives of four Americans. The intelligence of the American people was insulted, and continues to be insulted with "excuses" and "blame games." It has been one month and we are still not any closer to having a definitive statement from the Obama Administration on the truth about this terrorist attack. Vice President Joe Biden’s dodging of the question during Thursday's debate on whether the attack was indeed an "intelligence failure" shows the Administration is still not willing to accept responsibility.
The testimony this week of the Benghazi Consulate's Regional Security Officer in front of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, clearly outlined that prior to the attack, there had been a request for security personnel. This request had been denied, not because of any budget cuts, but because of someone’s inaccurate assessment of the security situation. As a matter of record, the Regional Security Officer had received additional “hostile duty” pay, so budget cuts would have had nothing to do with this incident. Yet somehow, someone deemed it not “hostile” enough to fulfill his additional security request.
Consider President Obama’s actions in the immediate week following the attack. He took a trip to Las Vegas, partied with music stars Jayzee and Beyonce, and did television interviews with Dave Letterman and The View. This is an unacceptable and insensitive course of action from a President after a terrorist attack on the 11th anniversary of 9-11.
I find it unconscionable that President Obama stated just this week in San Francisco that “Al Qaeda is on its heels.” Perhaps the President should listen in on more of those “intel briefs” by actually sitting, being briefed and asking questions, rather than just taking the briefing papers and reading them on his own. If so, he would hear firsthand how Al Qaeda is not nearly decimated or "on its heels." The terrorist network continues to exist in the Maghreb (North Africa), Arabian Peninsula (Yemen), is resurging in Iraq (a large jailbreak of terrorists recently in Tikrit), is operating in Syria, collaborating with the Afghan Taliban, and joining forces with Al Shabab in Somalia and extending into Sudan.
The Obama Administration has already destroyed our economic security. Refusing to call this Radical Islamic Fundamentalist enemy out for what it is, the Administration seems bent on destroying our national security as well.
During his speech to the United Nations, President Obama stated, “The future does not belong to those who would slander the prophet of Islam.” Our President should have stood strong and supportive of his own country and said "The future does not belong to those who will not support and defend our United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
In closing, last week I had the honor of being invited to the 70th birthday celebration of a dear supporter, friend, mentor and Town of Palm Beach Councilman, David Rosow, hosted by his lovely wife, Jeanne. The birthday dinner party was held on Palm Beach Island at the Sailfish Club and one of the many distinguished attendees was Mr. Rush Limbaugh, who happens to be a constituent of the district I represent. Into this illustrious setting, walked the son of Herman Sr. and Elizabeth West born respectively in 1920 in South Alabama and 1931 in South Georgia, accompanied by the daughter of Marine Security Guard (Ret) Keith and Patricia Graham, Jamaican immigrants to America. When my parents and the parents of my wife, Angela, were born, our parents would not have been able to visit Palm Beach Island, much less attend an event like this. However, it is because of the vision and dream of our parents that all things are possible in America, that Angela and I would be right there some 51 years later.
Herman Sr. and Elizabeth’s son is the Congressional Representative for one of the highest per capita income zip codes in America, the Town of Palm Beach. By my side that evening was my wife of 23 years, mother of our two daughters, and an accomplished woman with an MBA and a PhD. It did not require President Obama and his economic and social justice policies of fairness, fair share, fair shot, or economic patriotism to enable my wife and I to walk into the Sailfish Club last Sunday. It was Thomas Jefferson, who articulated that we have the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness endowed to us by our Creator, not man, and therefore not government. We are all created equal and have the access to the equality of opportunity this country has perfected and affords to its citizens and all who come to our beautiful shores.
America is a great and exceptional nation, and as Angela and I drove home that night we were reminded of such. I pray all of you realize how blessed we are to live in the greatest Constitutional Republic the world has ever known.
Allen West-10/12/2012 Published on Oct 14, 2012 by tedw2
Congressman Allen West's "Field of Dreams" speech in Temecula California before the November election. Not since Ronald Reagan has the mission and purpose of the Conservative movement been articulated so well. Thank God for Allen West.
2011 POLICE MEMORIAL RIDE WITH CONGRESSMAN WEST Posted on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 3:12:24 PM by AnyStreetFL
On May 14th, the annual police memorial ride was held and this year's most honored invitee was none other than Congressman Allen West, troops and law enforcement supporter. Please enjoy some of the pictures. Event planned by Wingman of the Patriot Guard Riders. Thank you, Wingman, for your relentless work.
He's a great communicator, a proven leader, and he understands the correct, constitutional role of the federal government. Concur 100%.
I'd choose West over Ryan for 2020. Ryan will have eight successful years of Veep under his belt in 2020 and be perfectly poised to assume the role of Pres for the next eight years.
Romney will need a SecDef. Agree, and West would be perfect for that role.
And after eight successful years as SecDef West would be perfectly poised to become Veep in 2020, and after eight successful eight years as Veep West would be perfectly poised to assume the role of Pres in 2028.
Mark Levin interviews Allen West; new PPP poll puts West up 9 points The Right Scoop, Oct 18, 2012
Allen West is leading his opponent in a new PPP poll by 51-42:
quote:
WPTV NEWS – Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is leading his Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy by nine points, according to a new FLDemocracy/WPTV/ TCPalm poll released Thursday.
Among likely voters surveyed, 51 percent support West and 42 percent back Murphy. Eight percent are undecided.
The same poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP), found Mitt Romney leading President Barack Obama in District 18 by a 50 percent to 45 percent margin.
The battle for the 18 th congressional district, which includes Martin, St. Lucie and northern Palm Beach counties, is one of the closest watched races in the country. The race has been characterized by a flood of advertising–most of which is coming from West who has outspent his Democratic challenger by 4-1.
Allen West feels very good in his district right now and told Mark Levin that he will definitely be bringing home a “W” in November. Listen to the full interview below:
Greetings to our constituents, fellow Floridians, and indeed all Americans. It is Friday, October 19th and it is time to prepare our weekly update for dissemination.
Over the last few weeks, the nation has been focused on the events in Libya and the state of our nation’s foreign policy. I wrote an editorial on that very subject published in Human Events on October 9th, entitled "Looking the Other Way: President Obama's Dangerous Foreign Policy." Please click here to read, as I dive into many areas in detail as to what the President is failing to do, and what I believe must be done differently to keep Americans safe.
Also this week, we have been once again reminded of some disturbing economic trends in America. First of all, we had an increase in first-time jobless claims up to 388,000. This is a clear indicator that we are far from out of the woods, and again makes one wonder how we went from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent unemployment in the last month while the workforce participation rate and U6 employment computation rate (unemployed, underemployed and discouraged) remained unchanged.
In South Florida, we have unemployment in Broward County at 7.5 percent (the only bright spot), Palm Beach County at 9.6 percent, Martin County at 9.7 percent, and St. Lucie County at 12.2 percent. If the same difference between the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) national unemployment and U6 national figures of 7 percent was applied, we would be looking at true rates ranging from 15 percent-19 percent including unemployed, underemployed, and unaccounted, discouraged workers.
As well, recent foreclosure statistics have now placed Florida at number one in the country and our own St. Lucie County in the top two for the State of Florida. We have so much to rectify.
For those who still refuse to believe we are witnessing a massive growth of the nanny-state government, we learned this week that welfare spending in America has increased by some 34 percent during this Obama Administration. This is why I have said on more than one occasion that we are seeing the battle between the opportunity society and the dependency society. The former promotes the fundamental Constitutional Conservative premise of limited government. The latter is rooted in the beliefs of the liberal progressive socialist welfare state.
Another key factor that gives credibility to the notion that our economy is not recovering, is the horrific monetary policy being enacted. We are now in what is called “Quantitative Easing III” (QE III). Actually, we are in QE III.5 because in between two and three there was something called “Operation Twist” which involved the purchase and sale of United States Treasury bonds in an attempt to lower longterm interest rates.
At this moment, the United States Federal Reserve is printing money in order to buy up our own debt to the tune of nearly $40 Billion a month, with no declared end stated. I find it interesting that we can tell the Taliban when we are leaving Afghanistan, but we cannot predict when we shall stop printing more money.
I thought the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) of 2008 was supposed to buy up the bad mortgage securities that poisoned our financial industry. Yet, here we are four years later still printing money to buy up the debt related to these assets.
In addition, we have interest rates at artificially low levels, just 0.25 percent at my last check. Yet, our financial institutions are not lending money to help small businesses expand and as a result our economy is stuck on an anemic 1.3 percent GDP growth.
It does not take a rocket scientist to recognize none of this is adding up. President Obama is just not equipped to articulate why, and he doesn't understand how to resolve this. It certainly is not about “taxing the wealthy.”
This past weekend, gasoline prices in some parts of California hit $6.00 for Supreme Unleaded. Is this to be the new normal?
Remember, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) does not take into account fuel and food prices. If it did, combined with our printing currency, we would probably realize we are in a state of inflation.
The news is not good. The question is, what are we going to do about it?
The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing and expecting different results.
We as a nation are fortunate to have men & women like West willing to serve.
Indeed. It takes a lot of courage in today's political climate to stand before America and proudly proclaim your patriotism. Odd that it should be that way, isn't it?
Looking The Other Way: President Obama’s Dangerous Foreign Policy By Rep. Allen West, Oct 9, 2012:
Lt. Col. Allen West | This is Our America Published on Oct 23, 2012 by TheNRCC
http://www.nrcc.org/west | For generations, we've understood that with a little hard work, nothing was beyond our grasp. It's time we had a government that worked with us, and not against us. The "This is Our America" campaign shares stories from candidates and regular Americans around the country who are fired up about the 2012 election and have faith that America is bigger than it's challenges.
We are the National Republican Congressional Committee, and our mission is to make sure Congress spends and taxes less, so the economy can get back on track.
Greetings to our Constituents, fellow Floridians, and all Americans. It is time for our weekly update.
My wife, Angela, and I bid farewell this week to two constituents who were very dear friends. One was a highly accomplished businessman and stalwart conservative, Larry Day. May God bless you Larry, and may God bless your wife Sharon. We will miss you.
Our other dearly departed friend was Mrs. Greta Sussman, an American patriot. Greta was so warm and kind to Angela and our daughters, especially when she invited our family to her home for Friday Shabbat dinner. It was very special. To her husband and former Mayor of Hillsboro Beach, Chuck, I want to say that Angela and I will always be here for you and your lovely family.
Americans like Larry Day and Greta Sussman are why I serve this great nation. They are indicative of that unique American exceptionalism and indomitable spirit that never surrenders. As we go forward as a nation, it is that indomitable spirit that will guide us back to the greatness that we know is achievable. An integral subset of that indomitable spirit is our American entrepreneurial drive, which has fueled our free market and enterprise system and given birth to unprecedented economic growth, innovation, ingenuity, and investment.
Still, today's report of a 2.0 percent GDP growth for the third quarter, is not reflective of what rugged individual industrialists can achieve. Our previous second quarter GDP growth was initially reported as 1.8 percent only to be downgraded to 1.3 percent. My concern is that this number will receive the same revision in mid-November.
The almost $1 trillion stimulus promised a GDP projection of 4.5 percent right now, as well as unemployment of only 5.8 percent. One disturbing aspect of today’s report is that the key driver of private sector job creation, real nonresidential fixed investment, declined for the first time since the first quarter of 2011. Real nonresidential fixed investment remains 7.2 percent lower than it was when the recession began in the fourth quarter of 2007. Also, the tiny 0.72 percentage point of today’s reported 2.0 percent annualized growth rate was the result of higher Federal Government consumption and investment. We all know the Federal Government is currently spending about 25 percent of our GDP with estimates from the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget projecting it to grow to nearly 32 percent.
Today’s report cements America's current recovery in last place among post-World War II recoveries lasting more than a year. Since the recession ended in June 2009, real GDP has increased a total of 7.2 percent. The average total increase in real GDP over the comparable 13 quarters in the other recoveries was 16.8 percent. In the strong President Ronald Reagan recovery of the 1980's, real GDP increased a total of 19.6 percent. In comparison, President Reagan had the economy humming at 7.1 percent GDP growth at the same period of time in his presidential term. If the economy had grown at the average pace of the other post-World War II recoveries, real GDP would be $1.2 trillion higher (based on 2005 dollars). A Reagan-style recovery would have produced an economy with $1.6 trillion more than the current recovery (again, based on 2005 dollars).
A bigger economy would mean more job creation and higher federal revenues. If the economy had grown at the average pace of the other recoveries, and revenues had returned to a Fiscal Year 2007 level relative to GDP, the budget deficit would have been reduced by more than half. In other words, we would currently have a budget deficit of only $230 billion, rather than $1.1 trillion. Sadly enough, the debt is taking the opposite growth path, which is why we have an upside-down debt to GDP ratio.
Lastly, we continue to learn more about the incident in Benghazi, yet we hear no response or explanation from President Barack Obama. I remember the University of North Carolina basketball team, under Coach Dean Smith, used a tactic called, “four corners.” It was a stall tactic implemented, particularly in the second half, since there was no shot clock to run down the clock.
It is evident by his appearances on those really tough media outlets like Inside Edition, Daily Show, Late Night, Tonight Show, and MTV that President Obama, a basketball enthusiast, learned about using the four corners. But there’s one difference. The President’s team has no lead on the scoreboard, and the American people have the ball. The only question is, will they slam dunk?
