News by the Numbers - April 2009

0 - When was the last time that you saw a news report giving the latest number of American war dead in Iraq? There haven't been any published in the national news since the election on Nov. 4th! The numbers were never intended to be news, but they were just a club to bash Bush and Republicans by association.

3 years - the amount of time the IRS has in which to conduct an audit on a return or an amended return, according to an AP article.

3 times - Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has delayed access to energy in the United States. In July 2008, then Senator Salazar stated he would not support drilling offshore if gas prices were to reach $10 per gallon, according to The Heritage Foundation.

5% or less - the maximum reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels that a clamp down on future U.S. emissions would produce - a trivial change no matter what you believe about carbon dioxide. Moreover, China and India have vowed not to harm their economies because of global warming -- so their emissions can be expected to soar as they develop and more than make-up for our reductions, according to Steven Milloy, JunkScience.com

5 years - the U.S. could completely end its dependence on OPEC by 2020, if full-scale production of the conservatively estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil, from oil shale in the Green River Formation, were to begin. The Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, according to the U.S. Department of Interior and Bureau of Land Management.

8 islands that are now part of Alaska, the 200-mile exclusive economic zones around them and all the outer continental shelf that goes beyond 200 miles are to be confiscated in a conspiracy between the wealthy Russian thugs who now run Russia and unelected international bureaucrats at the United Nations. The land grab represents hundreds of thousands of square miles of sovereign American territory, containing billions of barrels of American oil, which will be given to Russia if brazen Russian opportunists and U.N. bureaucrats have their way, according to Carl Olson, Chairman of State Department Watch.

25 DVDs given by Obama to the Prime Minister of Britain were not even compatible with European media players

32 miles of the double fencing, of the 700 miles approved by Congress in 2006 has been completed on the border - a pace of just under 11 miles a year, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

41% of Americans say the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated, according to a Gallup poll.

69% of the American people do not have any confidence in the role of government mandated solutions to the economy, according to Kevin McCullough.

78% of the American people believe inflation will come quickly.

80% of the increase in energy demand during the next two decades is expected to come from China, India and the Middle East, according to Richard W. Rahn, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.

82% of the American people say they are worried about the monstrous rise in the national debt.

83% of the American people say they are worried that the steps he has taken to fix the economy will have the opposite effect and make things worse, according to Kevin McCullough.

234-191 - the vote which passed H.R. 1106 in the House of Representatives which would grant bankruptcy judges the unilateral authority to reduce lending rates or to reduce the amount owed to a lender, transferring the burden from those who are not able to meet their mortgage obligations to future homeowners and taxpayers. Congressman Eric Cantor (R-7th District) voted against this bill.

370 kidnappings occurred in Phoenix, Arizona in 2008, spearheaded by Mexican drug cartels, which operate brazenly in the city, according to ABC News.

$750 per year - the cost that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would cost the poorest families in America as higher energy prices ripple through the economy affecting all goods and services.

1993 - Congress increased the amount of Social Security benefits subject to taxation from 50% to 85%.

$110,332 - AIG’s campaign contributions to Democrat Barack Obama, according to OpenSecrets.org

$111,875 - AIG’s campaign contributions to Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer, according to OpenSecrets.org

$281,038 - AIG’s campaign contributions to Democrat Senator Chris Dodd, according to OpenSecrets.org

$260,000 in contributions by Wall Street fund manager Bernard Madoff were made to prominent Democratic politicians, including Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y; #House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo; Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.; Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Gov. Jon Corzine, D-N.J. Madoff also gave $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to Jerome R. Corsi, World Net Daily.

$500,000 - Obama’s 2009 advance for an abridged version of his book "Dreams From My Father" for middle-school-aged children

$1 million - Obama’s income in 2006

$2.5 million - book royalties paid to Obama last year for "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

$4 million+ - Obama’s income in 2007

$15 million a month will go to unions that support Democrat candidates and the Democrat Party committees in dues payments from the 600,000 new federal government jobs created by the “stimulus bill” passed by the Democrats, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

$17 billion - the total bailout to General Motors and Chrysler thus far. They have asked to borrow $21.6 billion more. In addition, their financing arms have received $6.5 billion, according to and AP report.

$182.5 billion - the total bailout to AIG thus far.

$2.435 trillion has been taken (stolen) from our Social Security Trust Fund savings by Congress. They take another $227 billion this year alone, according to the Christian Seniors Association which notes that the liberal AARP denies there is an ongoing raid of the Social Security Trust Fund.