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ObamaConomy Update

• Youth Unemployment Hits Record High
• Federal workers earning double their private counterparts
• Government jobs three times the job security of private sector jobs
• Jobs picture dims as unemployment claims rise
• Deficit in July Totals $165.04 Billion
• Democrats Blast Cuts to Food Stamps to Fund $26B Teacher, Union Aid Bill
• Obama Administration to Provide $3 Billion in Housing Aid
• Homes lost to foreclosure up 6 pct from last year
• Freddie Mac says needs $1.8 billion from taxpayers
• Manhattan Luxury Condos Try FHA Backing in `Game Changer’
• Borrowers Refuse to Pay Billions in Home Equity Loans
• Government Spends Billions Bailing Out Foreign Firms, Replaces American Jobs With Foreign Green Jobs
• Business facing a wave of green taxes

Must be nice

While many Americans have traded vacations for stay-cations — or no vacation at all — Michelle Obama and her daughter had one heck of a time in Spain. And both home and abroad, the world is taking note:

• While Obama preaches sacrifice, his family frolics in Spain – The Age, Australia
• The Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancien Régime: extravagant and out of touch with the American people – U.K. Telegraph
• Spanish police close public beach for Michelle Obama’s £250k Spanish holiday | Daily Mail U.K.
• Michelle Obama visits Ronda – U.K. Telegraph
• Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation – NY Daily News
• Lavish Obama vacation in time of economic turmoil raises eyebrows | Seattle Times Newspaper
• Michelle Obama lunches with Spain’s royal family as backlash over her extravagant holiday continues back home | Daily Mail U.K.
• White House calling: Please will you make a coat for Michelle Obama – London Evening Standard
• Michelle Obama Criticized for Spain Vacation – NYTimes.com

ObamaConomy Update

• Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: Unemployment Could Go Up Before It Comes Down
• Social Security in the red for first time ever
• Food stamp use hit record 40.8 million in May
• Jobs Picture Worsens With 131,000 Job Losses; 9.5% Rate
• July jobs show odd mix of bad news | Reuters
• New claims for jobless benefits rise to 479,000
• Jobless claims raise doubts about economy
• USPS posts $3.5 billion loss as mail volume plunges
• Fannie Mae Seeks $1.5 Billion From U.S. Treasury After 12th Straight Loss

ObamaCare Update

We can get a good idea what we have to look forward to by looking at other countries who have socialist healthcare programs:

• Buying into Britain’s Debacle
• Swedish man sews up own wound after ER wait
• Canadian woman loses baby in hospital ER waiting room after 3 hour wait (on page 3 of the article, it says some other patients in the ER waiting room that day had been waiting 12-14 hours without being seen)

Other ObamaCare headlines:

• Obamacare Only Looks Worse Upon Further Review
• Obama Administration Called Out on Cooking the Books in Obamacare

By the numbers

• 36% – Number of people who approve of Obama’s handling of the war in Afghanistan (a record low)
• 41% – Obama’s current approval rating (a record low)
• 35 – Average number of weeks that a person is unemployed (highest since1950). This is double the number when he took office, and 14 weeks higher than the previous high of 20 weeks.
• $22,000,000 – Amount of US taxpayer dollars spent training IT workers… in Asia… to be hired by US companies wanting to offshore jobs. The program is run by a hand-picked Obama appointee
• $87,000 per year – Salary for Major Nidal Hasan that the US Army — and the US taxpayer — is still paying to the Ft. Hood murderer
• $30,400 – Per-plate cost at a recent Democrat party fundraiser
• $700,000 – Amount of taxpayer dollars spent to have Andy Griffith do an advertisement to reassure us that ObamaCare is good for us
• 86% – Number of Americans who believe there should be more limits on what the federal government can do
• 94% – Number of American who reject the idea that the government should be allowed to do most anything

Abandon Ship!

It has come to our attention that Christina Romer, chair of the Obama Administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, has decided to resign. Ouch.