The last week brought us a striking contrast that tells us much about the current debate over the direction of this country. On one hand were the perpetually aggrieved protestors of Occupy Wall Street.

CNN's financial guru Ali Velshi admitted that the press didn't really challenge President Obama's proposal for tax hikes after his Thursday press conference on his jobs bill. Velshi, perhaps going soft himself, noted during the 12 p.m. hour that Obama's speech “seemed like a bit of an economics lesson” how the President attacked Republicans and their demands on the count that they don't create jobs.

Politicians who are principled enough to point out the fraud of Social Security, referring to it as a lie and Ponzi scheme, are under siege. Acknowledgment of Social Security's problems is not the same as calling for the abandonment of its recipients. Instead, it's a call to take actions now, while there's time to avert a disaster.

Asked by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos if he regretted his promotion of the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra, Barack Obama said, “No, I don’t.” This cavalier answer provides yet another snapshot of the arrogance and ideological fixation that drives his presidency.

For years, Democrats (and Republicans) have surreptitiously created dependency by manipulating the tax code.

I’ve spilt many pixels writing about the constitutional challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which are now nearly certain to end up in the just-commenced 2011–12 term of the Supreme Court.

There are many observations that can be made about President Obama’s remark Monday to ABC News that businesses “don’t have some inherent right just to get a certain amount of profit if your customers are being mistreated.” In and of itself, this comment reveals much about his beliefs and knowledge (or lack thereof) on economics, consumer choice, and the private sector in general. But in the context in which it was made — Bank of America, Citi , and other banks’ recently announced debit-card and checking-account fees for consumers, which they are charging to recoup losses from the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law’s price controls on debit-card fees charged to retailers — what must first be said is that he was lecturing the wrong set of Fortune 500 corporations. The price controls were added to the law by an amendment from Senate majority whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.).

Richard Goldstone doesn’t know when to quit. Two years ago, the South African former judge led a United Nations fact-finding inquiry into the Israel-Gaza conflict.

CNN's Jessica Yellin, reporting on President Obama's virtual townhall Monday afternoon, noted two wealthy persons who wish to pay higher taxes – but didn't mention the small businessman who during the townhall complained to the President about regulations and taxes. Yellin focused her brief report on a member of the audience who claimed to be a wealthy retiree and asked for higher taxes.

**Written by Doug Powers This one’s better if you first read a quote from the First Lady from back in June : “See, what you all need to know about the President you helped to elect is that when it comes to the people he meets, Barack has a memory like a steel trap,” For even more evidence to validate that claim, fast forward the tape to Sunday’s $35,800-per-couple Seattle-area fund raiser : The fund raiser was held in the 27,000-square foot, art-draped home of former Microsoft chief operating officer Jon Shirley. Obama deemed the art collection unforgettable

(Peter Lemiska) – It’s no secret that Barack Obama and the Democrats want to raise taxes on the wealthy, but if they expect their plan to resonate with mainstream America, they have to counter the charges that they are engaging in class warfare. Obama is sensitive to those accusations and recently defended himself, arguing that the $14.5 trillion-plus national debt is too big to be reduced by budget cuts alone and that, in the interest of fairness, the wealthy, like those hedge fund managers, should pay the same higher tax rate as plumbers or teachers…

The question arises: How effective are weasel words in fighting off weasel words? With its leader having proposed to expand our deflating economy by redistributing another $1.5 trillion from private-sector producers to public-sector gluttons, the Obama Left’s talking point du jour is: “We are just asking the rich to pay their fair share.” The point here is not to rehearse the illogic of that assertion

Obama announced his plan to increase taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 per year and households earning more than $250,000 year. But data shows that the wealthiest Americans pay more taxes than the middle class or the poor. Warrior At a Democrat National Committee fundraiser on Tuesday night (September 20, 2011)

In one of the least needed reassurances in modern political history, President Obama's top political man David Plouffe, “told Democrats late last week that the White House would not suffer from overconfidence. 'What I don't want to suggest is that we're sitting around and thinking everything is great,' he said.” With the White House's own economists predicting 9 percent or worse unemployment on Election Day, the president at about 39 percent job approval, college grads unable to find jobs, a quarter of American homes under water, no credible White House policy or strategy for changing things — and with most non-institutionalized Americans convinced we are in a recession that is going to get much worse — it is surpassing odd that Plouffe was worried that his fellow Democrats might think the president and his men believed everything to be hunky-dory. And yet, if it is not overconfidence driving White House strategy, what is?

The lengths Paul Krugman will go to further the lie that the rich don't pay their “fair share” of taxes knows no bounds. In his New York Times column Friday, the Nobel laureate in economics claimed, “[T] he federal tax burden has fallen for all income classes”: The [Congressional] budget office's numbers show that the federal tax burden has fallen for all income classes, which itself runs counter to the rhetoric you hear from the usual suspects

It is clear from the way President Barack Obama has been talking about the federal budget recently, and about taxation since he came to office, that all the money that Americans earn belongs to the federal government. The key words in this conversation are “tax expenditures.” Obama has lost a lot in tax expenditures, and he wants more of those tax expenditures back.

National Public Radio nicely set up President Obama’s bridge publicity stunt on Thursday morning by going to a Republican demanding more federal aid to cities for infrastructure. On their website, the headline was “Infrastructure Funds Benefit More Than The Economy.” Morning Edition substitute anchor David Greene announced their oh-so-convenient booking of a Republican: “A number of U.S.

The recent decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Virginia v.

**Written by Doug Powers You can’t make a fairness omelette without calling out a few eggs, so here goes : Republicans demanded Thursday that billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett reveal his tax returns if his views on tax rates are going to serve as the basis for the White House’s proposals.

In a 2008 debate, Charlie Gibson asked Barack Obama about his support for raising capital-gains taxes, given the historical record of government losing net revenue as a result.