Jesse Ventura to Federal Elected Officials: End the Government Shut Down and Regain Our Civil Liberties

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has started a petition on Change.org calling for an end to the government shutdown. Click HERE to sign the petition if you agree with this:

A million federal employees have been laid off since the government shut down. It costs us, the taxpayers, over 300 million dollars a day. The representatives that work for us are still getting paid, even though they’ve declared they won’t show up for work. Can you imagine walking into your job today and telling your boss that you won’t be showing up to work, but you demand your boss still pays you? How well do you think that conversation will play out?

As I’ve said many times before, every American citizen deserves free health care. It isn’t socialism; it’s the right thing to do. Even though I don’t agree with President Obama on many issues, I do know that he was re-elected because We The People, the majority, wanted the Affordable Care Act. The bill was passed. And now, it’s Congress, standing in our way. They’re holding the country hostage. Isn’t that terrorism?

If government healthcare is good enough for our military, and good enough for our representatives, and good enough for our President, then it is good enough for the rest of us too.

Don’t let Congress take away your basic right to health care. It’s inexcusable that they are getting paid to do nothing. Right now, they are getting free government health care too – also, you guessed it – for doing absolutely nothing.

If they’re not working, why should they continue to be paid? Why should we continue to send them our tax dollars? The IRS should pro-rate our taxes, so that we don’t pay a penny to them while they are holding our government and our health care hostage.

Do you know what happened in Australia a few years ago when the country’s legislature failed to make a budget? They were all fired. The Australians fired them and instituted new elections for the entire Legislature.

We need to stop voting for those who do not have our interests in mind. Stop voting for these DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans who put their political parties first, special interest groups second, and we, the American people, third.

If these elected officials want to keep their jobs, we must petition our government to make them actually do their jobs, or else vote them out of office immediately. Remember: they work for us. It’s time they remember that.

Express your anger by taking action to regain our Democracy. Add your signature to my petition.

Peace,

Governor Jesse Ventura

The post Jesse Ventura to Federal Elected Officials: End the Government Shut Down and Regain Our Civil Liberties appeared first on disinformation.

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Jesse Ventura to Federal Elected Officials: End the Government Shut Down and Regain Our Civil Liberties

U.S. economy likely lost step in second quarter; expected to regain pace

The U.S. flag waves in the breeze above one of the entrances to the New York Stock Exchange, November 19, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Chip East

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON | Wed Jul 31, 2013 2:28am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth likely slowed sharply in the second quarter, but it is poised to regain momentum as the burden brought on by belt-tightening in Washington eases.

Gross domestic product probably grew at a 1.0 percent annual rate, a step back from the first-quarter’s 1.8 percent pace, according to a Reuters survey of economists. Some said growth could be even weaker, with forecasts ranging as low as 0.4 percent.

Tighter fiscal policy, a slow pace of inventory accumulation and sluggish global demand, which has dampened exports, are seen as having hobbled the economy in the April-June period.

“The economy only had a couple of legs to stand on, consumers and housing, but conditions are falling into place for a stronger second half of the year,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester Pennsylvania.

The Commerce Department will release the second-quarter GDP report at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday.

If economists’ forecasts are proved right, it would mark a third straight quarter of GDP growth below 2 percent, a pace that normally would be too soft to bring down unemployment.

But given the backward-looking nature of the GDP report, it is not likely to have any impact on monetary policy.

Federal Reserve officials, wrestling with a decision on the future of their $ 85 billion per month bond-buying program, will probably nod to the second quarter’s weakness when they wind-up a two-day meeting on Wednesday. But they are also expected to chalk up much of the weakness to temporary factors, such as the drag from fiscal policy and a smaller build-up of business inventories.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month that the central bank was likely to start curtailing the bond purchases later this year and would probably bring them to a complete halt by the middle of 2014, if the economy progressed as expected.

“Even with a relatively soft GDP number, the Fed still appears confident in their outlook and the prospects of the labor market going forward,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It looks like they are positioned to make their announcement, come late this year.”

SILVER LINING IN REVISIONS?

While U.S. financial markets have already priced in a weak second-quarter GDP reading, comprehensive revisions to the data might present a silver lining for the economy.

The government has implemented some changes in how it calculates GDP. For example, research and development spending will now be treated as investment, and defined benefit pension plans will be measured on an accrual basis, rather than as cash.

Economists say these changes will not only reveal a bigger economy and a higher rate of saving, but they could lead to an upward revision of 2012 growth as well.

“There’s a distinct possibility that real GDP growth over the past four quarters will be upgraded,” said Maury Harris, chief economist at UBS in New York.

“In addition, history suggests that the originally published personal saving rate will be revised up, which would calm some concerns about under-saving consumers holding back their upcoming expenditures.”

Economists said the revisions would probably narrow the gap between a relatively strong pace of job gains and weak growth, a misalignment they said the Fed was monitoring.

Higher taxes, as Washington tries to shrink the government’s budget deficit, likely constrained consumer spending in the second quarter, keeping the economy on an anemic growth pace.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is expected to have slowed to a less than 2 percent pace after rising at a 2.6 percent rate in the first quarter.

That could bring the contribution from consumer spending far below the 1.8 percentage points it added in the first quarter.

With domestic demand tepid, businesses likely tried to keep their inventories from bulging. Inventory accumulation is expected to have made only a modest contribution to growth.

Other details of the report are expected to show exports weighed on the economy as demand weakened in Europe and China. Trade is expected to have subtracted more than half-a-percentage point from GDP growth in the second quarter.

Good news is expected from the housing sector, with double-digit growth forecast for spending on residential construction. Housing, which triggered the 2007-09 recession, is growing strongly, helping to keep the economic recovery anchored.

Business spending on equipment and software likely continued a steady march upward, with investment in nonresidential structures rebounding from a decline in the first quarter.

Government spending, however, is expected to have contracted for a third straight quarter, largely because of the across-the-board spending cuts in Washington.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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Reuters: Most Read Articles

U.S. economy likely lost step in second quarter; expected to regain pace

U.S. economy likely lost step in second quarter; expected to regain pace

The U.S. flag waves in the breeze above one of the entrances to the New York Stock Exchange, November 19, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Chip East

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON | Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:08am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth likely slowed sharply in the second quarter, but it is poised to regain momentum as the burden brought on by belt-tightening in Washington eases.

Gross domestic product probably grew at a 1.0 percent annual rate, a step back from the first-quarter’s 1.8 percent pace, according to a Reuters survey of economists. Some said growth could be even weaker, with forecasts ranging as low as 0.4 percent.

Tighter fiscal policy, a slow pace of inventory accumulation and sluggish global demand, which has dampened exports, are seen as having hobbled the economy in the April-June period.

“The economy only had a couple of legs to stand on, consumers and housing, but conditions are falling into place for a stronger second half of the year,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester Pennsylvania.

The Commerce Department will release the second-quarter GDP report at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday.

If economists’ forecasts are proved right, it would mark a third straight quarter of GDP growth below 2 percent, a pace that normally would be too soft to bring down unemployment.

But given the backward-looking nature of the GDP report, it is not likely to have any impact on monetary policy.

Federal Reserve officials, wrestling with a decision on the future of their $ 85 billion per month bond-buying program, will probably nod to the second quarter’s weakness when they wind-up a two-day meeting on Wednesday. But they are also expected to chalk up much of the weakness to temporary factors, such as the drag from fiscal policy and a smaller build-up of business inventories.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month that the central bank was likely to start curtailing the bond purchases later this year and would probably bring them to a complete halt by the middle of 2014, if the economy progressed as expected.

“Even with a relatively soft GDP number, the Fed still appears confident in their outlook and the prospects of the labor market going forward,” said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It looks like they are positioned to make their announcement, come late this year.”

SILVER LINING IN REVISIONS?

While U.S. financial markets have already priced in a weak second-quarter GDP reading, comprehensive revisions to the data might present a silver lining for the economy.

The government has implemented some changes in how it calculates GDP. For example, research and development spending will now be treated as investment, and defined benefit pension plans will be measured on an accrual basis, rather than as cash.

Economists say these changes will not only reveal a bigger economy and a higher rate of saving, but they could lead to an upward revision of 2012 growth as well.

“There’s a distinct possibility that real GDP growth over the past four quarters will be upgraded,” said Maury Harris, chief economist at UBS in New York.

“In addition, history suggests that the originally published personal saving rate will be revised up, which would calm some concerns about under-saving consumers holding back their upcoming expenditures.”

Economists said the revisions would probably narrow the gap between a relatively strong pace of job gains and weak growth, a misalignment they said the Fed was monitoring.

Higher taxes, as Washington tries to shrink the government’s budget deficit, likely constrained consumer spending in the second quarter, keeping the economy on an anemic growth pace.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, is expected to have slowed to a less than 2 percent pace after rising at a 2.6 percent rate in the first quarter.

That could bring the contribution from consumer spending far below the 1.8 percentage points it added in the first quarter.

With domestic demand tepid, businesses likely tried to keep their inventories from bulging. Inventory accumulation is expected to have made only a modest contribution to growth.

Other details of the report are expected to show exports weighed on the economy as demand weakened in Europe and China. Trade is expected to have subtracted more than half-a-percentage point from GDP growth in the second quarter.

Good news is expected from the housing sector, with double-digit growth forecast for spending on residential construction. Housing, which triggered the 2007-09 recession, is growing strongly, helping to keep the economic recovery anchored.

Business spending on equipment and software likely continued a steady march upward, with investment in nonresidential structures rebounding from a decline in the first quarter.

Government spending, however, is expected to have contracted for a third straight quarter, largely because of the across-the-board spending cuts in Washington.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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U.S. economy likely lost step in second quarter; expected to regain pace