In the Reuter's article included below, the corporate media boasts that the Barack Obama campaign raised 45 million US dollars in one month for his re-election in 2012. $45 million in one month spent to re-elect a president who for the last 3 years has served as front man for the corporate mafia thugs and has done nothing for those who voted for him in 2008.
$45 million in one month during a 4 year period of brutal slashing of jobs, wages & benefits for US workers; a series of deadly attacks on funding for: K-12 education and other child education programs, public health care, elderly & disabled, health care for retired state workers, colleges and universities, job training, cost of living increases for social security recipients, prevention of child abuse programs and services for foster children, child-care subsidy and assistance programs, services for the homeless, affordable housing, food stamps, medicaid, local and district courts, meals for the elderly, hospice care, services for veterans, fire fighting and prevention programs and many more public programs and services. But spending on the military and police has increased.
During the last 4 years many public schools have been closed and the majority are schools that serve minorities. We couldn't find statistics for the total number but an internet search on public school closings from 2008-2012 turns up many pages of local school districts reporting their closure of many primary and secondary schools. 30 states have also significantly reduced their funding for K-12 public school education.
During the same period 400,000 government employees have lost their jobs and thousands of government jobs have been frozen while the need for their services has increased. Furloughs and/or pay cuts for state employees has been imposed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin among others.
Many state offices in areas such as Departments of Motor Vehicles have been closed due to funding cuts while the need for their services has increased. Read more about all these cuts at Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
On the other hand, Barack Obama has collected $151,392,217 and Mitt Romney $63,650,764 for their campaigns in the 2012 presidential campaigns for a total of $215,042,981. Add to that over $115 million already raised by the other candidates for a grand total of $330,042,981. And we haven't yet seen the end of the first quarter of 2012 so at this rate, over a $Billion will fund the charade of the US presidential election this year. Who's throwing all this money at the elections to get their Front Man elected? You can bet it ain't the men and women who lost their wages, benefits, jobs, homes, schools and health care over the last 4 years!
Axis of Logic calls on US citizens to boycott the sham National Elections in the United States again in 2012 - just as we have done for every national election since 2002. The reasons should be obvious. Your vote is not sacred. It only goes to support the lie that democracy exists in the USA.
- Les Blough, Editor
Obama campaign raises more than $45 million in February
by Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON | Mon Mar 19, 2012
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and its Democratic allies raised more than $45 million in February, increasing their financial haul compared to January as worries mount that Republicans could outspend Democrats in 2012.
In a statement released on Twitter, Obama's campaign said 348,000 people contributed last month and 105,000 people gave money for the first time.
Nearly 98 percent of the month's contributions were $250 or less, it said.
"Since April 2011, a total of 1.64 million people have pitched into own a piece of this campaign," the Twitter message said.
Obama's Chicago-based re-election effort has spent the past several months building up a grassroots effort it hopes will help turn out the vote on Election Day in November.
Obama's campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and other joint fundraising committees took in a combined $29.1 million in January.
The Republican National Committee noted a different trend: Obama's February numbers were a drop from the $56.78 million his campaign raised on its own in February 2008.
"After three years of policies that have left our country with record debt, high unemployment, and soaring gas prices and healthcare costs, it's clear President Obama is having a hard time convincing voters he deserves another term," RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said.
Obama was in the middle of a tough primary battle with then-Senator Hillary Clinton in February 2008.
The Obama campaign said the funds it is raising now are focused on the November 6 general election. Republican candidates, who are still in the middle of divisive fight for their party's presidential nomination, are spending their campaign cash on the primary race.
"Every dime the Republicans are raising will be spent on the air carpet-bombing each other," said Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. "As we work to build the largest grassroots campaign in history, our funds are a direct investment in our general election infrastructure on the ground."
The Obama campaign is confident about its infrastructure but worried about money.
Campaign officials fear that outside groups known as Super PACs could outspend Obama in their quest to put a Republican in the White House.
Super PACs are political groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence political campaigns, even though they cannot be directly affiliated with a candidate.
To help offset those groups' financial strength, Obama held a five-event fundraising spree on Friday in Chicago and Atlanta, where he was projected to raise nearly $5 million or more.
The president is his campaign's best fundraising draw and he has done roughly twice as many fundraisers at this point in his re-election effort as his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush, had done at the comparable time.
Obama has utilized the drawn-out Republican primary race to focus on boosting his campaign's coffers. Though his campaign had roughly $750 million for the 2008 election, it is concerned that the same amount would not be sufficient this year to counter the onslaught of ads from the Republican opposition.
The Super PAC supporting Obama, Priorities USA Action, raised $2 million in February, significantly less than comparable amounts raised by Republican-leaning groups.
White House and Obama campaign officials are now appearing at Priorities USA events to help boost its money-raising prospects.
(Editing by Bill Trott)
Source: Reuters