General Shinseki and America Are Paying a Heavy Price for Obama as President

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday, leaving President Obama a paper detailing the systemic malfunctioning in the VA and trying to open the door to the corrections needed to bring the agency back to working order. The 71-year-old Shinseki, a disabled Vietnam veteran who rose to General rank and served as Army chief of staff, was forced out amid investigators' troubling findings and the extreme Washington political focus on Shinseki's status, making him a sort of scapegoat for the President's inaction. Obama did not fire Shinseki, giving him the opportunity to submit his own report to the White House, set in motion a series of firings in the agency, and speak to veterans at a long-planned appearance Friday morning. ~~~~~ But the loss of General Shinseki is not the real problem. CNN's John King on Sunday's "Inside Politics," noted that : "More and more Democrats in key 2014 races are calling for the President to get a spine, they say, and more and more Democrats are privately calling the President and his team detached, flat-footed, even incompetent." King, CNN's chief national correspondent, said that Democrats have been saying privately since the HealthCare.gov opening debacle that "they see a President who doesn't want to take command, doesn't want to act fast." King also cited an Obama meeting with senators on foreign policy last week that he did not show up for. ~~~~~ The examples of Obama delays and inaction reach deep into domestic American policy, beyond the red flag that is Obamacare and its correlary in the VA medical service crisis. One example is Obama's holding up of approval of applications for liquefied natural gas exports that could total nearly 30 billion cubic feet per day. Some of the more than two dozen applications were filed as long ago as 2011 and early 2012. But Obama's Energy Department has consistently favored renewable energy sources over carbon-based fuels. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and former chief economist of the US Department of Labor, told the media that : "America could sell natural gas to Europe and Asia, undercutting Russia's market, at no additional cost to the federal government." And, increased production would produce additional tax revenue for federal and state governments. Liquefied natural gas (LNG), mostly methane, is natural gas converted to liquid for ease of storage and transport. The companies that have filed applications for export permits could potentially export 29 billion cubic feet of LNG daily, and if the export process were not so difficult, more companies would likely invest in LNG exporting and apply for permits. The earliest application was filed in October 2011, and eight were filed in 2012. The United States has massive natural gas deposits that can now be accessed thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling techniques. In North Dakota, the average amount of “non-marketed” natural gas that is wasted was 0.31 billion cubic feet a day through the end of 2013, according to the Energy Information Administration. Furchtgott-Roth wrote for the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch that : "Most non-marketed natural gas is flared into the atmosphere like an open burner on a gas stove. Flaring gas releases CO2 as a byproduct of combustion, so it would be environmentally preferable for the gas to be sold." One-third of North Dakota's total production is flared. Allowing more exports would help the state's economy and increase America's gross domestic product. ~~~~~ Refusing to grant LNG export permits is just one Obama wrench in the US domestic economy. And, the attitude Obama represents is also found working its way through state governments led by Democrats. The 2014 edition of "Rich States, Poor States" - the ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index - is now available, and Utah is once again the state with the best economic outlook. The report was compiled by noted economist Arthur Laffer, along with economist Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams, director of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The Economic Outlook rankings are compiled using 15 factors "that have a proven impact on the migration of capital - both investment and human - into and out of states," the authors noted. "Each of these factors is influenced directly by state lawmakers through the legislative process." The 15 factors include the top marginal personal income tax rate, the top marginal corporate income tax rate, personal income tax progressivity, property tax burden, sales tax burden, and overall tax burden. Also considered are debt service as a share of tax revenue, public employees per 10,000 population, state minimum wage, average workers' compensation costs, number of tax expenditure limits, quality of the state's legal system, recently legislated tax changes, whether a state has an estate/inheritance tax and whether it is a right-to-work state. Utah ranks No. 1 for economic outlook, as it has every year since 2008. South Dakota is No. 2, followed by Indiana, North Dakota, Idaho, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wyoming. In last place at No. 50 is New York, which has finished in that slot or at No. 49 every year since 2008. Vermont has the second-lowest ranking, followed by Illinois, California, Minnesota, New Jersey, Connecticut, Montana, Oregon, and Rhode Island. "Generally speaking, states that spend less - especially on income transfer programs - and states that tax less, particularly on productive activities such as working or investing, experience higher growth rates than states that tax and spend more," according to the report, which also offers Economic Performance Rankings, ranking the states over the past 10 years on three variables : Gross Domestic Product, Absolute Domestic Migration, and Non-Farm Payroll Employment. Texas ranks at the top of the list, leading the nation in Absolute Domestic Migration and finishing in the top five in the other two variables. Utah is No. 2, followed by Wyoming. North Dakota is ranked No. 4 thanks to its top rankings in the Gross Domestic Product and Non-Farm Payroll Employment categories. Rounding out the top 10 are Montana, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Idaho. Michigan is at the bottom of the list, ranking No. 50 in the Gross Domestic Product and Non-Farm Payroll Employment categories and No. 50 overall. Ohio is No. 49, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, Illinois, Connecticut, Wisconsin, California, Maine, and Massachusetts. ALEC is a nonpartisan organization of state legislators, made up of nearly one-third of America's state elected officials. ~~~~~ Dear readers, in the ALEC economic success rankings, Republican states are largely at the top and Democratic states generally at the bottom. It is not too difficult to see that the same Obama tax-and-spend-and-overregulate mentality that is keeping America from fully recovering from the great recession and regaining its normal level of economic activity is also at work in tax-and-spend-and-overregulate Democrat-led states. General Shinseki paid the price for agreeing to remain in service under such a non-functioning President. Americans who elect Democrats to governorships and legislatures pay the same economic price. Those who voted for Obama and his Democratic followers in the US Senate and House are forcing all Americans to pay the same economic price. There is a clear and directly useful solution. Vote Republican in November.