Navigating Politics

In the first year of NavigatingPolitics.com we have seen dramatic change in the middle east, the death of a terror leader, and the end of an almost nine year war. Domestically however, we have seen numerous moments that have warranted a countdown clock as Republicans and Democrats repeatedly fought to the bitter end. The issues always at hand: taxes, spending, or both.

The first was the government shutdown threat in April when Republicans demanded at least $60 billion in immediate cuts and Democrats pushed to protect funding for priority programs(Pell grants, planned parenthood, Head Start…). In the end, after much drama, an agreement to cut $38.5 billion was reached with less than an hour and a half before the government was set to shut down.

April’s government shutdown fight set the scene for the Summer-long debate over increasing the nation’s debt ceiling. As we reported this summer, the debt limit was something that has been routinely raised because failure to raise it would lead to a catastrophic credit default. President Obama insisted on large-scale deficit reduction (about 4 trillion) that represented a “balanced approach,” with both spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy. Republicans, however, wanted deficit reduction to come from spending cuts exclusively. Just two days before the first ever US credit default, a deal was reached that included a debt ceiling increase funded by immediate spending cuts and a congressional “super-committee” that would find $1.2 Trillion in additional cuts. Months later, the committee failed to find those cuts.

And most recently, Americans were brought a week and a half away from a 1,000 tax increase. Last year, middle-class payroll taxes were cut temporally from 6.2% to 4.2%. In September, President Obama proposed a 1 year extension and expansion of that tax cut in his American Jobs Act. The President’s plan included a small tax increase on the wealthy as a way to both cut the deficit and pay for the tax cut. Republicans, who say this middle-class tax cut is not as stimulative as the tax cuts for the wealthy, refused to allow any tax increase on the wealthiest Americans. In the end, the tax cut was extended for two months after a stalemate over how to pay for the tax cut and the inclusion of these policy riders.

This year of down-to-the-wire politics was a direct result of the 2010 Midterm elections that increased the Republican’s power over the legislative agenda. It can also be seen as a guide as to what we can expect in 2012, an election year. The first battle that will be waged will be over how to pay for the full year extension of the payroll tax cut (even though Bush Tax Cut Extension was not paid for). This must be done by February. The next battle will be cutting 1.2 Trillion dollars from the deficit in order to avoid deep automatic budget cuts that are set to occur in 2013. Both will be simple continuations of the debates that occurred this year.

2011 was an extremely divisive and unproductive year in domestic politics. As the election season commences on January 3rd, the priorities of congressional leaders and the President will shift from trying to get work done, to working to get reelected. With the political dysfunction seen this year, do you expect much to get done in an election year? We’ll find out in 2012! Happy New Year!

Herman Cain. He was the man with the plan, the one-time front runner in the Republican Presidential Race, but since has been marred with news of a previous sexual harassment settlement followed by a flood of women claiming sexual harassment.

Last week, in what proved to be the final nail in the coffin for his campaign, a woman named Ginger White came out and claimed that she and Mr. Cain have been having a 13 year long affair. In a Fox 5 Atlanta news exclusive, Ginger White went through the details of the affair, saying it just ended about 8 months ago.

When we asked for any corroborating evidence, she pointed us to her cell phone contacts. One name: Herman Cain.

She showed us some of her cell phone bills that included 61 phone calls or text messages to or from a number starting with 678. She says it is Herman Cain’s private cell phone. The calls were made during four different months– calls or texts made as early as 4:26 in the early morning, and as late as 7:52 at night. The latest were in September of this year. (Watch the full special here)

This led to a week of denials from Cain who said it represented more false accusations, but culminated this Saturday when Herman Cain dropped out of the Republican Primary.

So as of today, with a lot of prayer and soul-searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign. I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family — not because we are not fighters; not because I am not a fighter.

Cain went on to announce that although he is ending his campaign, he is not planning to leave the political arena. While running for President was what he referred to has his “Plan A,” he has moved on to plan B: www.thecainsolutions.com. Cain plans to use this platform to continue to promote his policies, especially his 9-9-9 tax reform plan.

He ended his speech on Saturday by using a quote from the Pokemon movie (suggesting Pokemon used it from someone else) to describe where he is privately and where we are as a nation.

Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you and me. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do.

So what do you think? Is this fair? Who do you think stands to gain the most from Cain’s departure? How seriously do you take a candidate who quotes the Pokemon movie? Comment Below!

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In the highly anticipated monthly unemployment report released Friday, the unemployment rate fell .4 percentage points to 8.6%, its lowest level since March 2009. The drop came as the private sector added 140,000 jobs in the month of November, with a loss of Government jobs bringing the overall number down to 120,000 net new jobs.

The White House used the unemployment data as ammunition in its fight to get the payroll tax extended for one year, a key provision of the President’s American Jobs Act.

In this environment, the President’s American Jobs Act is the right medicine to sustain and strengthen the recovery.  In particular, with 13.3 million Americans still unemployed, and 43 percent of them unemployed for 6 months or longer, it would be a setback for the economy and American families if Congress were to allow extended unemployment benefits to expire at the end of the year. – Alan B. Krueger, Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers

However, the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, used the data to attack the President and push for “Republican Solutions.”

Today marks the 34th consecutive month of unemployment above eight percent. As you may remember, the Obama administration promised unemployment would stay below eight percent if its ‘stimulus’ was enacted.  That promise has gone unfulfilled.

Because the president’s policies have failed, the House has passed a series of bills designed to remove government barriers to private sector job creation…

While the decrease in the unemployment rate is welcome news, experts warn that the big dip makes the situation appear better than it truly is. This is because the unemployment data only considers people who are in the labor market and are actively looking for jobs. As people become discouraged, they stop looking for jobs, making the labor market smaller. The truth to this report is that although legitimate jobs were added, about half of the drop in the unemployment rate is simply because almost 300,000 people stopped looking for work (which inflated the size of the dip in the unemployment rate). Because of this, analysts predict a future increase in the unemployment rate if jobs continue to be created at this slow rate (about 131,000/month).

The Unemployment data also showed a disproportionate addition of jobs. The jobless rate for whites and adult men decreased (adult men down .5% to 8.3%), while “the rates for adult women (7.8 percent), teenagers (23.7 percent), blacks (15.5 percent), and Hispanics (11.4 percent) showed little or no change”

Click HERE to view the full report.

I just wanted to give all of you a quick thank you for being a subscriber to NavigatingPolitics.com! To all of you who commented on posts, who have reposted or retweeted the articles, and who just read to stay informed, I am extremely grateful for your support.

Thank you and I hope you all have a fun, safe, and food-filled day with the ones you love!

Shaquille Brewster

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It would probably be wrong to say that politics is predictable (just think Herman Cain’s rise and fall), however, it would be valid to say that politics is extremely repetitive. It was just this summer when budget debates almost led to a first-ever US credit default as the debt limit was nearly breached. And it was just this spring when we were brought an hour and a half away from a government shutdown because of budget cut debates.

It’s now a new season, meaning Washington is obviously in the middle of –you guessed it– yet another round of budget cut debates. As with the previous debates and negotiations of earlier this year, there are enormous consequences that are to come with inaction.

This situation essentially is carried over from the debt ceiling agreement passed in August. As NavigatingPolitics.com reported, in that agreement, in addition to the almost trillion dollars cut, a congressional committee was established. This committee was tasked to come up with an additional 1.2 trillion dollars in deficit reductions and pass it by November 23rd. This committee’s plan would then be “fast-tracked,” guaranteeing a vote on the unamended bill in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate by December 23rd.

Democrats and Republicans are once again not seeing eye to eye, with the divisions between the two parties remaining the same. There are the Republicans who have proposed a plan that cuts 2.2 trillion dollars from the deficit over the next 10 years. The savings are said to all derive almost exclusively from cuts to entitlement programs and “Mandatory Spending” (presumably Pell grants, Social Security, and Federal worker’s pensions). Democrats, on the other hand, are said to have proposed 3 trillion dollars in deficit reductions. Half of the saving in the Democrat’s plan come from spending cuts (many similar to those of the Republicans), while the other half comes from tax increases on the wealthy.

Both plans, proposed in late October, were immediately rejected by the opposite party. Republicans refuse to increase tax rates at all, and have recently proposed the closure of some single-billion dollar loopholes. Democrats insist that it is only fair that cuts to Medicare and Medicaid be matched with tax increases on the wealthy. As the deadline rapidly approaches, these stances have seemed to only harden, with no compromise in sight. If nothing is accomplished by this committee, the agreement passed in the summer requires that the budget goes through a process called “sequestration.” This essentially means there will be across the board spending cuts (Medicare, Medicaid, Defense Spending) that are undesired by both parties. Ideally, Republicans want to avoid automatic cuts to defense spending, while democrats are working avoid the cuts to the entitlement programs.

While the consequences of sequestration are intended to induce a deal now in this special committee, the truth is the automatic cuts are not set to take place until 2013. This would essentially give congress a year, if the committee fails, to come up with 1.2 trillion dollars in savings itself (yeah…right) or to (as many have already proposed) simply repeal the sequestration clause before it goes into effect(the benefits of self-enforcement). Republicans have especially raised this prospect after Leon Panetta, the Defense Secretary to the United States, testified to congress that the proposed defense cuts would have a damaging effect on the military. This repeal of sequestration, however, is something in which the Speaker of the House along with President Obama have insisted is not an option, saying congress needs to compete the job it has set out to do.

With an unofficial deadline of Monday (in order to let the Congressional Budget office verify the numbers), the prospects of a deal are dim. The parties have already started blaming each other.  Many political analysts with inside information have said the committee has essentially accepted failure. CNN Breaking News blast on Sunday morning said “Super committee now focused on how to announce failure to reach deal on budget cuts, aids tell CNN.” In all, this super committee, with a super task, is amounting to be a super failure. And I can’t say that I am surprised

***Update 5:20***
The Supercomittee has officially announced their failure. President Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks on the failure at 5:45 pm. The written statement of the super-committee’s co-chairs is below:

After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline

Despite our inability to bridge the committee’s significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation’s fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve,” the statement continues. “We remain hopeful that Congress can build on this committee’s work and can find a way to tackle this issue in a way that works for the American people and our economy

**Update 6:00**
President Obama, in his remarks insisted that this failure is because Republicans refuse to compromise and agree to what numerous economists say, what multiple bipartisan commissions have said, and what the majority of American people support: a balanced approach. He also threatened to veto any attempt to avoid the sequestration, saying that it keeps pressure on congress.

I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.

We need to keep the pressure up to compromise — not turn off the pressure. The only way these spending cuts will not take place is if Congress gets back to work and agrees on a balanced plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. That’s exactly what they need to do. That’s the job they promised to do. And they’ve still got a year to figure it out.

Although Congress has not come to an agreement yet, nothing prevents them from coming up with an agreement in the days ahead. They can still come together around a balanced plan. I believe Democrats are prepared to do so.

So what do YOU think? What would your plan be? Should the potentially “devastating” sequester be repealed? Are both sides to blame? Comment below!