Elections Have Consequences

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the simple fact that elections have consequences.  When we decide which candidate we will vote for, we make a decision or a choice.  Since every choice has a consequence, elections have consequences.

                    There was not much time between when Barack Obama was proclaimed the winner of the 2012 presidential election late on November 6, 2012, and when the first consequence hit.  The very next morning we learned that stocks were falling with the following results by the end of the week:  Dow down 2.1 percent, S&P 500 down 2.4 percent, and the Nasdaq down 2.6 percent.  It is very obvious that investors did not like the results of the election.

                    Even as the stock market fell, Obama was repeating his stance that the rich pay more to cut the federal deficit.  "We can't just cut our way to prosperity.  If we're serious about reducing the deficit we have to combine spending cuts with revenue, and that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes."  

                    Companies did not like the election results either.  Freedom Works compiled a list of companies that will lay off employees as a result of Obamacare - which will not be repealed.  Those companies include Welch Allyn (lay off 275 employees or 10 percent of their work force; manufactures medical diagnostic equipment in central New York), Dana Holding Corp. (global auto parts manufacturing company in Ohio), Stryker (closing facility in New York, eliminating 96 jobs; manufactures medical devices), Boston Scientific (cutting between 1200 and 1400 jobs and shifting investments and workers to China), Medtronic (makes medical devices; could cut up to 1000 jobs). 

Other companies facing layoffs because of Obamacare include Smith and Nephew (770 jobs), Abbot Labs (700 jobs), Covidien (595 jobs), Kinetic Concepts (427 jobs), St. Jude Medical (300 jobs), and Hill Rom (200 jobs).  Besides the people who will lose their jobs due to Obamacare, many other workers will see their jobs shift from full time to part-time work - less than 30 hours each week - to avoid penalties.

Coal companies have started to lay off employees.  Robert E. Murray, chairman and chief executive of Ohio-based coal company Murray Energy, took action on Wednesday, November 7, 2012.  He fired 54 people at American Coal (a subsidiary company) and 102 people at Utah American Energy.  Murray Energy is the country's largest privately owned coal mining company. The approximately 3,000 employees produce about 30 million tons of bituminous coal each year.  The lay offs are a direct result of Obama's "war on coal."

The consequences of giving Obama another four years to "finish the job" range far wider than health care, jobs, and unemployment.  The people most connected with the scandals of the Obama Administration are resigning.  Are the "rats fleeing the sinking ship" to avoid being impeached?

General David Petraeus, the CIA Director, was schedule to testify before Congress next week about the attack in Benghazi.  He resigned on November 9, 2012, because of "an extra-marital affair."  His resignation took effect immediately and was obviously delayed to avoid affecting the election.  This very "convenient" admission of infidelity and resignation means that he will not testify next week and stunned the lawmakers.  Hilary Clinton is another key player in the Benghazi cover intends to step down as Secretary of State soon after the Inauguration in January.  Will these resignations mean that we will never learn what really happened in Benghazi and why four Americans were left to die at the consulate in Benghazi?

Then there is Attorney General Eric Holder who told law students at the School of Law at the University of Baltimore that he is considering resignation.  Holder and his agency have stonewalled congressional committees in their investigation of the botched "Fast and Furious" operation.  Obama has invoked executive privilege, and Holder was found in contempt of Congress because he refused to turn over documents about the operation that allowed guns to be illegally sold to "straw buyers" in attempt to track Mexican drug cartels. 

Just as Americans died in the debacle at Benghazi, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was "reportedly" killed with one or more of the guns used in the Fast and Furious operation.  Terry's death in December 2010 during an attack in a canyon north of the Arizona border city of Nogales brought Fast and Furious out into the light and started the congressional investigation.  Will the resignation of Holder stop this investigation?

The re-election of Obama indicates that the majority of Americans either do not know about the corruption in the first Obama Administration or they do not care.  I predict that this is one election that will bring dire consequences to our nation.  Even if we can we survive four more years of Obama policies, can our nation endure with a majority of citizens who would give Obama a second term?