They write, in part:

State and local governments are getting squeezed ever more tightly and something is going to have to give. They will be forced to cut key services to residents, hit up taxpayers again with higher levies, or curtail pension benefits.

A survey this month by Loop Capital Markets found that only 58 of the 149 state-level pension plans it viewed were funded at 80 percent or more, the standard by which funds are judged to be financially healthy. The median funded ratio for state pension plans fell from 76 percent in 2010 to 73 percent in 2011.

What passed for good news here was that while Loop Capital said the situation was “bad,” it argued it was not “catastrophic.” Not yet anyway. States and local governments could still make up the shortfall.

That’s the most positive spin on the situation. The bipartisan State Budget Crisis Task Force used a colder, more clinical eye in a July report. It found that state and local governments underfunded their pension plans by more than $50 billion between 2007 and 2011. The shortfall will have to be made up.

The task force noted that under current actuarial assumptions the total unfunded liability is $1 trillion, but many economists believe those assumptions are far too generous. The real unfunded liability may be as high as $3 trillion. Why are pensions underfunded in the first place? Because elected officials have overpromised benefits and then failed to fill the coffers.

“California, Illinois, and New Jersey, with 19 percent of the nation’s population, accounted for more than half of the contribution shortfall. Between 1996 and 2011, Illinois underpaid contributions by $28 billion,” the task force report noted.

“Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession.  Now, after 38 months of this ‘recovery,’ it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household.”

How bad is the Obama economy?  Family incomes are falling more than twice as fast under Obama than they did during the recession.

“From the start to the end of the recession, the real median income of American households fell $1,413, or 2.6 percent.  From the end of the recession to the present day, it has dropped $3,040, or 5.7 percent,” the Standard reports.

“Currently, the average Canadian household is more than $40,000 richer than the average American household.”

The paper adds: “And these are not 60-cent dollars, but Canadian dollars more or less at par with the U.S. greenback. Furthermore, these figures ignore public-sector (government) debt that presumably people on both sides of the border or their children will some day have to pay. Such debt is higher in the U.S. as a percentage of GDP than it is in Canada.”

How did we get there?

A Republican-and-Democrat engineered recession, followed by:

“At a certain point you’ve made enough money.”

“The private sector is doing fine.”

“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

“The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures consumer confidence on a daily basis, slipped just a tenth of a point on Friday. At 83.5, the Consumer Index is down four points from a week ago, down one point from a month ago and down one point from three months ago,” says Rasmussen.

“The Rasmussen Investor Index also held steady on Friday. At 92.3, investor confidence is down two points from a week ago, down one point from a month ago and little changed from three months ago.”

Read this commentary and weep. Because I wrote it two years ago, almost to the day. I called Obama “the Great Jobs Killer.” It was published in my column in the Las Vegas Review Journal on July 4, 2010. See: http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/barack-obama–the-great-jobs-killer-97758294.html

My commentary was quoted in Time magazine, and widely across the Internet. Yet as you read it again (below), look closely at the words. It could have been written today- after 4 consecutive months of disastrous jobs reports. Nothing has changed. Obama was a highly effective jobs killer back in 2010…just as he still is in 2012. Nothing happening to the economy today should come as a surprise. It was all clear on inauguration day 2009, as we installed a radical progressive in the White House who would spend, tax, and overwhelm the system with debt, stimulus, bailouts, and entitlements, bringing our economy to it’s knees. Perhaps someone should have listened.

None of this is a surprise to fiscal conservatives. We predicted it. We called it like Babe Ruth pointing to right field before hitting a home run to that exact spot. Maybe it’s time American voters listened to the people who got it all right.

Here is the column in it’s entirety from July 4, 2010:

Go here to read the full column.

Thirty-one percent (31%) say “the economy” is “the most important problem facing this country today.”  The second most pressing issue is “jobs,” coming in at 26 percent.

Combined, 57 percent of Americans cite jobs or the economy as the issue most in need of attention.  Immigration garnered only three percent.  Drugs, war and climate change did not even register on voter’s list of concerns.

The poll also found:

* “Seniors as well as Americans in households earning less than $30,000 annually join blacks in putting the greatest emphasis on unemployment and jobs as the nation’s top problem. By contrast, middle- and high-income Americans and those aged 18 through 64 are more likely to name ‘the economy.’”

* “Blacks focus more than either whites or Hispanics on unemployment as the nation’s top problem. However, whites worry more than blacks or Hispanics about the federal budget deficit…”

* “About 10% of adults in every major age group mention the federal budget deficit as the top problem, but it is of particular concern to Republicans (16%), adults earning $75,000 or more (12%), whites (11%), and men (11%). Relatively few blacks, Hispanics, low-income Americans, or Democrats mention the issue.”

Only 31 percent of Democrats call the economy “good,” a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds.

“Almost two-thirds of Americans — 65 percent — disapprove of Obama’s handling of gas prices, up from 58 percent in February. Nearly half, 44 percent, “strongly disapprove.” And just 30 percent said they approve, down from 39 percent in February,” the AP reports.

“Democrats remain more optimistic about the economy in the coming year than do independents and Republicans, but still, the percentage that is hopeful for improvement in the next year dipped 10 points since February.

“Fewer than one in three expect their household’s economic fortunes to improve in the coming year, down from 37 percent in February. Eighteen percent see their finances as worsening, up from 11 percent in February.

“And 35 percent expect the unemployment rate, which has been inching down for months, to start going back up. Thirty percent thought that in February. Independents are closer to Republicans than Democrats on that issue, with only 18 percent of independents and Republicans optimistic that the jobless rate will improve.”

Only forty-four percent (44%) of adults say the economy will be stronger five years from now. Twenty-two percent (22%) say the economy will be weaker, while nine percent (9%) say it will be about the same.  A stunning 25% are not sure. (Poll wording here.)

Additionally, consumer confidence in the Obama economy plummeted five points after last Friday’s April jobs report found 300,000 Americans left the labor force last month.

Another 38 percent think the economy is becoming worse, while 22 percent say it’s staying the same.

Among independent voters the numbers are even grimmer. A whopping 48 percent say the economy is getting worse. Just 30 percent think it is getting better while 19 percent say it is staying the same.

You have the power to change that.

By supporting Libertarian candidates.

The “Libertarian Prosperity Plan” seeks to repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS, enact a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget without tax increases and repeal all corporate welfare programs and bailouts.

The Libertarian Prosperity Plan is rooted in the Libertarian Party platform and bedrock libertarian principles.

Unlike the other parties, we don’t promise tax cuts to just grab enough votes to win and then do nothing.  Elected Libertarians enact tax and spending cuts because it is what we believe in.

The Plan would:

1)    Repeal the income tax: Adopt legislation repealing the income tax and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.  Until the income tax is repealed, adopt legislation preserving the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and enacting across-the-board income tax cuts.

2)    Adopt the Balanced Budget Amendment: Adopt a constitutional amendment requiring the federal budget be balanced, and balanced exclusively by cutting expenditures, not by raising taxes.

3)    Abolish corporate welfare and bailouts: Adopt federal legislation prohibiting any federal spending program that provides payments or unique benefits and advantages to specific companies or industries, terminating programs that provide direct grants to businesses, eliminating programs that provide research and other services for industries and ending programs that provide subsidized loans or insurance to businesses.

Only Libertarians have a plan, that they will follow up on, that frees job creators to begin investing and hiring again and curbs destructive federal spending.

Want to help put it into action?

Go here to learn more about running for office as a Libertarian.

Go here to chip in $10 or more to support Libertarians in winnable races.

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