Friday, January 31, 2014
OBAMA ANNOUNCES A NEW PROGRAM THAT REQUIRES NO CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL: HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Barack Obama announced this week that he would establish a program to help low-income earners save for retirement.
President Obama on Tuesday announced a program to help low-income earners save for retirement. (Getty Images)
But the new “starter” savings program — called “My Retirement Account” (myRa), for “my Individual Retirement Account” (IRA) — has left a few analysts skeptical.
“His proposal might do some good — not by helping workers, most of whom are unlikely to take advantage of it, but by spurring a discussion about how to fix a broken retirement system,” theBloomberg editorial board said.
Others are more apprehensive.
“It’s a trap. It will make your savings highly visible to the government, very vulnerable to future special taxes and it drives investments in the direction of financing the government with your savings, rather than the productive private sector,” the Economic Policy Journal said after the president unveiled the plan. “That’s what myRA is all about.”
The program is aimed at Americans who lack the start-up funds required for many commercial IRAs.
“Starting with as little as $25, savers are expected to invest a little each month in Treasury bonds and then convert the accounts into traditional IRAs once the savings grow,” the Associated Press reported. “The president said that he wants all workers to be automatically enrolled in IRAs unless they specifically opt out. Under one scenario, monthly paycheck deductions would be invested in bonds unless workers choose another option.”
But as the Bloomberg editorial board said, participation in the new program will probably be far below expectations — unless people are forced into it.
“Without compulsion or inducements, participation in MyRAs is likely to be small. Fewer than one in 10 workers who are eligible to contribute to existing Individual Retirement Accounts bother to do so,” the board said.
Further, it’s important to note that the White House technically does not need congressional approval to start the program. According to Bloomberg, this is both a good thing and a bad thing.
“It’s good because it means something will happen; it’s bad because without legislation, the government can’t make employers offer the plans or tell workers they’re covered unless they choose not to be,” the editorial board said.
Households earning approximately $191,000 annually can deduct money from their paychecks and put it into a retirement fund that pays roughly the same interest rate as retirement funds available to federal workers.
“Savers would contribute after-tax dollars into the accounts, starting with as little as $25. They could opt for contributions as low as $5 a paycheck,” the AP adds. “New retirement accounts being set up by the Treasury Department would target workers whose employers don’t offer retirement benefits or who haven’t started saving yet for old age. Treasury expects to have a pilot program working by the end of the year.”
Unsurprisingly, Zero Hedge has a very dim view of the initiative: “[S]ince it offers ‘guaranteed return and no risk’ we now know where all the Fed’s bond trades will go to work once [quantitative easing] ends.”
But here’s the thing: The president was a little more careful with his words when he explained program’s “guarantees.”
“Today, most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security check often isn’t enough on its own. And while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn’t help folks who don’t have 401ks,” the president said during his State of the Union address Tuesday.
“I will direct the Treasury to create a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings: myRA. It’s a new savings bond that encourages folks to build a nest egg. MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in,” he added. “Offer every American access to an automatic IRA on the job, so they can save at work just like everyone in this chamber can.”
Getty Images
For now, unless tweaks are made to the program, workers who want to open a MyRA account must first make sure their employers agree to participate.
The White House admitted Wednesday that no businesses have actually committed to enrolling in the program. Further, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew was unable to say how many Americans are expected to open MyRA accounts.
“We think this fills a space that, very importantly, we can do by our own authority,” Lew said.
Still, the White House said the program will cost practically noting and remains optimistic businesses will sign on to participate.
“These new accounts will open up access to tax-advantaged retirement savings vehicles that many people do not currently have access to because of cost-prohibitive barriers,” Jamie Hopkins, a professor in the retirement income program at the American College, told The New York Times, adding that the maximum amount people can save — roughly $15,000 — is fairly limited. “This is relatively small and for most people won’t make a significant impact on their retirement preparedness all by itself.”
“[T]his will not solve the retirement income shortfall that exists in the U.S.,” he said, adding that it may still be “a step in the right direction.”
But because the program relies on paycheck deductions, businesses that don’t use automatic payroll systems will be excluded unless and until the administration develops a new system for them to participate, according to the AP. This raises obvious questions about how far the White House will go to adjust the program without congressional approval.
“I could do more with Congress, but I’m not going to not do anything without Congress,” Obama told a crowd of workers Wednesday at a steel plant in Pennsylvania.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/31/obama-announced-a-new-program-that-requires-no-congressional-approval-heres-what-you-need-to-know/
Obama runaway progressive regime: Disregard for the rule of law in Virginia and the administration.
This week in his State of the Union President Obama continued what has become a disturbing trend among liberal officeholders of substituting their political preferences for their legal and constitutional responsibilities. As a former governor, attorney general and prosecutor, I listened in growing dismay as the president ticked off a list of executive actions of questionable authority, acting by decree and without legislation.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new from the president or his political allies. The administration’s “fixes” for Obamacare have also been unilateral changes to the law by the executive branch without authority from Congress. While none of us likes Obamacare, the Constitution clearly delegates the power to write and amend laws to the Congress, not to the president. However, this president has not been one to let something as trivial as the Constitution constrain his actions.
Recently President Obama told us “We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” declaring that he would make policy unilaterally if Congress refused to grant his liberal wish list.
Indeed President Obama’s regard for the separation of powers is so low that in 2012, his derisive comments about the U.S. Supreme Court’s power of judicial review prompted a federal appeals court to require the Obama Department of Justice to submit a letter clarifying that the administration did, in fact, recognize the courts’ power of judicial review established by the Supreme Court over two hundred years ago in Marbury v. Madison.
It would be bad enough if the impulse to place politics above the rule of law were limited to President Obama, but in fact this behavior represents a disturbing trend among liberals in state government as well. Just last week in my home state of Virginia, newly sworn-in Attorney General Mark Herring announced that he would not defend the amendment to Virginia’s constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman, approved by Virginia voters in 2006.
As a former Virginia attorney general, I find this astounding. No matter how anyone feels about same sex marriage or any other issue, the matter has to be decided within our constitutional system. This is about the rule of law and proper legal procedure restraining the acts of public officials who are not above the law.
Under Virginia law, the Attorney General has an obligation to defend the Constitution of Virginia. He is also required to represent Virginia when the state’s position is in conflict with the federal government. Attorney General Herring’s action is in violation of both of those rules.
It is not enough for a president, a governor, or an attorney general to disagree with a law: the executive branch of our federal, state, and local governments have responsibilities – whether it’s under a state constitution or the federal Constitution – to enforce and defend the law. If there is a law that any of them disagree with, it’s their responsibility to work with the legislature to change it. There is no power to grant “exemptions” or variances, such as those that the Obama White House has granted to some people and groups under Obamacare. Such actions are illegal and unenforceable in court.
It seems that both President Obama and Attorney General Herring, and the liberal talking heads cheering them on, consider their various political preferences so important that they are willing to recklessly abdicate the responsibilities to the Constitution and the rule of law that come with the offices to which they were elected.
Liberals’ sense of constitutional obligations and the rule of law seems to be dictated by politics. As a candidate in 2008, President Obama attacked then President Bush’s use of signing statements as an “abuse of power” and a “license to evade laws that the president does not like or as an end run around provisions designed to foster accountability.” Five years into his presidency, President Obama has issued nearly as many signing statements as President Bush issued in eight years. During his campaign for Attorney General, Mr. Herring bitterly campaigned against the record of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, complaining that he often made legal decisions based on his political views, and not the law.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/30/the-runaway-progressive-regime-disregard-for-the-rule-of-law-in-virginia-and-the-administration/#ixzz2s0quaqoE
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
FACT CHECK: LESS THAN MEETS THE EYE IN OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH
Obama promised to clear red tape away from highway projects that actually are stalled because there’s no money for them, not because rules are in the way. He’s ordering a higher minimum wage for a sliver of the workforce, which affects no one now and not many later.
Going it alone — without Congress making a law — just doesn’t go as far as President Barack Obama made it sound at times Tuesday night in his State of the Union speech.
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Jan. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
A look at some of the facts and political circumstances behind his claims, along with a glance at the Republican response:
OBAMA: “Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled.”
THE FACTS: The most recent evidence suggests that mobility hasn’t worsened. A team of economists led by Harvard’s Raj Chetty released a study last week that found the United States isn’t any less socially mobile than it was in the 1970s. Looking at children born between 1971 and 1993, the economists found that the odds of a child born in the poorest 20 percent of families making it into the top 20 percent hasn’t changed.
“We find that children entering the labor market today have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution (relative to their parents) as children born in the 1970s,” the authors said.
Still, other research has found that the United States isn’t as mobile a society as most Americans would like to believe. In a study of 22 countries, economist Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa found that the United States ranked 15th in social mobility. Only Italy and Britain among wealthy countries ranked lower. By some measures, children in the United States are as likely to inherit their parents’ economic status as their height.
___
OBAMA: “We’ll need Congress to protect more than 3 million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer. But I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible.”
THE FACTS: Cutting rules and regulations doesn’t address what’s holding up most transportation projects, which is lack of money. The federal Highway Trust Fund will run out of money in August without action. To finance infrastructure projects, Obama wants Congress to raise taxes on businesses that keep profits or jobs overseas, but that idea has been a political nonstarter.
The number of projects affected by the administration’s efforts to cut red tape is relatively small, said Joshua Schank, president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a think tank. “The reason most of these projects are delayed is they don’t have enough money. So it’s great that you are expediting the review process, but the review process isn’t the problem. The problem is we don’t have enough money to invest in our infrastructure in the first place.”
___
OBAMA: “In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops’ meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn’t have to live in poverty.”
THE FACTS: This would be a hefty boost in the federal minimum wage, now $7.25, but not many would see it.
Most employees of federal contractors already earn more than $10.10. About 10 percent of those workers, roughly 200,000, might be covered by the higher minimum wage. But there are several wrinkles. The increase would not take effect until 2015 at the earliest and it doesn’t apply to existing federal contracts, only new ones. Renewed contracts also will be exempt from Obama’s order unless other terms of the agreement change, such as the type of work or number of employees needed.
Obama also said he’ll press Congress to raise the federal minimum wage overall. He tried that last year, seeking a $9 minimum, but Congress didn’t act.
___
REP. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS of Washington, in her prepared Republican response: “Last month, more Americans stopped looking for a job than found one. Too many people are falling further and further behind because, right now, the president’s policies are making people’s lives harder.”
THE FACTS: She leaves out a significant factor in the high number of people who aren’t looking for jobs: Baby boomers are retiring.
It’s true that a large part of the still-high unemployment rate is due to jobless workers who have given up looking for a job. There are roughly three people seeking every job opening, a circumstance that can discourage others from trying. But one big reason people aren’t seeking employment is that there are so many boomers — the generation born in the immediate aftermath of World War II — and therefore more than the usual number of retirements.
As of December, the economy had gained 3,246,000 jobs since Obama took office in January 2009. When he was inaugurated, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent and on the rise. It peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and has been inching down ever since, to 6.7 percent this past December.
—–
The fact-checking website Politifact also gave President Obama two “true” ratings and a “half-true” on Tuesday night.
Firstly, the site reports that Obama was telling the truth when he argued “average wages have barely budged.” Citing federal statistics, “the average annual wage increased by 8.3 percent between 2008 and 2012. … “However, this raw wage data doesn’t take into account inflation — something economists like to consider when determining whether a wage ‘barely budged.’”
Some will surely argue the debate isn’t as settled as the president claims.
Secondly, Politifact also gave Obama a “true” rating on his claim that “more oil [has been] produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world – the first time that’s happened in nearly 20 years.” They gave the rating based on a “variety of reasons,” listed here.
Obama’s claim about reducing carbon pollution received only a “half-true” rating.
“Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth,” the president boasted.
If the cuts are measured by percentage, his claim doesn’t hold water, according to Politifact.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/28/fact-check-less-than-meets-the-eye-in-obama-state-of-the-union-speech/
Obama is offering himself as the miracle cure for his own failed policies
His speech included a few new proposals — more payments to poor working people, reduced tax benefits for wealthy savers, a raised minimum wage and increased legal immigration so that cost-conscious companies can hire minimum-wage foreigners instead of aspiring Americans.
These big goals were accompanies by the progressives’ version of more cowbell — more K-12 spending, more college degrees, universal preschool so that unionized teachers can supplant parents, more promises of beneficial regulation of the oil-and-gas sector, and cheaper mortgages for poor people.
The speech listed items intended to spur turnout by the Democrats’ constituency groups — teachers, women, Latinos, environmentalists, gays and opponents of the Guantanamo prison for jihadis.
The speech was filled out with a series of additional mini-proposals designed to boost the number of opportunities for Democrats to applaud the leader on TV.
The speech also included Obama’s familiar condescension toward Republicans’ opposition to Obamacare.
“There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments,” he said. “The first forty [votes against Obamacare] were plenty. We got it,” he said.
But Obama has a long 10 months ahead of him before the November election.
A poll by the Washington Post and ABC News shows that Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats on managing handling the economy by seven points, or 44 percent to 37 percent.
The poll shows that Obama’s long-enduring personal characteristics advantage has faded — 52 percent of people think Obama does not understand their problems, and only 49 percent think he is honest and trustworthy.
Those numbers, combined with Obama’s 46 percent approval, 50 percent disapproval rating, can drag several Democratic senators to defeat in November, leaving Obama facing a GOP House and Senate in the two years leading up to 2016.
The GOP threw their javelins even before Obama began his speech.
“Throughout the last five years, President Obama has promised an economy for the middle class; but all he’s delivered is an economy for the middle-men,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee will say in his rebuttal.
“The president’s image is upside down,” RNC chairman Reince Priebus said in an interview with Fusion, a Latino-focused network created by ABC and Univision. “I think he is acting like a child and I think the American people see it. I don’t think it’s going to fly,” Priebus said.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/28/obama-offers-himself-as-the-cure-for-the-obama-economy/#ixzz2rozmIzLl
‘AMERICA’S FIRST DICTATOR’: BECK EXPLODES OVER PRESIDENT OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Glenn Beck was on fire Tuesday regarding President Obama’s State of the Union address last night, saying “all they do is spin and lie.”
“I say this, honestly, with a heavy heart today,” Beck said on his radio program. “What a sick, despicable circus spectacle. So far beneath all of us. From the attention-whores that line the aisle to kiss Caesar and his ring as he enters the chamber … to the human props that the president and, quite honestly the GOP, used to sell the wares, I couldn’t take it.”
President Barack Obama greets members of Congress as he leaves after giving the State of Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014, in Washington. (AP Photo/Larry Downing, Pool)
Beck asserted that, frankly, “there’s a good chance you’re a sociopath” if you’re a politician in Washington, D.C. today.
This was particularly evident, he added, when the president had “the nerve to mock millions of Americans who have already suffered greatly because of [Obamacare], and mocked the tens of millions more who will soon be joining them.”
‘AMERICA’S FIRST DICTATOR’
Beck said he believes every American should document that “this was the State of the Union where our president declared he would become America’s first dictator.”
“This transition began with Woodrow Wilson,” Beck said. “From America that is based on the Constitution to Philip Dru: Administrator, which is just a name for dictator.”
But Beck said that perhaps more “chilling” than the president’s repeated assertions that he will go around Congress, was that half of the U.S. Congress was actually standing up and cheering.
“The founders set this up so each branch would fight for their power,” Beck explained. “It wasn’t just, ‘Well, we’re just going to separate these things and it will just go along fine.’ They knew that in the hearts of men was selfishness and a hunger for power, and so each branch would say, ‘No, no, no. You’re not crossing that line. That’s my power.’”
But Beck said that at the State of the Union, the “lemmings” who are about to lose their power cheered the president on “like the Roman Senate and Caesar.”
US President Barack Obama waits to deliver his the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on January 28, 2014 at the US Capitol in Washington. AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI
‘UNCHALLENGED’ CONTRADICTIONS
Beck said that President Obama often “takes a little bit of truth and then weaves in a lie” in his speeches. During his State of the Union address, President Obama repeatedly said that America is a land of opportunity, but in the same speech, felt the need to take executive action to create a “ladder” to the middle class.
“Wait a minute. Didn’t you just say a barkeeper’s son could become the Speaker of the House?” Beck asked. “Didn’t you just say that a single mom from the 1960s – when single moms were a pariah in our society, and from a mixed marriage – that kid can become president of the United States? What the hell happened to your ladder? … How does this contradiction always go unchallenged? Why is it, Mr. President, that you made it? Not just to the middle class, but you kept climbing that invisible ladder that doesn’t exist to the highest class. You are more wealthy and powerful than I will ever be … You make the richest 1% look like rookies.”
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
“Last night the president again looked us in the eye, he looked Congress in the eye, and he begged them to give the unemployed ‘a fair shot,’” Beck reflected. “As if we currently do nothing for the unemployed … Right now unemployment benefits last [weeks] short of two full years! Two full years! 99 weeks. Mr. President, what would be a fair shot? 199 weeks? 1,999 weeks? 19,000 weeks? What’s a fair shot, Mr. President?”
Beck continued with mounting indignation: “And the reason why we need more time is because your policies are crippling businesses! So we can’t hire more people. Some of us are on the brink every single day as business owners, looking, ‘how can I make payroll when the government continues to screw me every step of the way?’”
EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK
“And then the president,” Beck continued, “after looking down his nose and squaring his shoulders and mocking us – he then had the nerve to boldly proclaim that women deserve equal pay for equal work.”
“I am so sick of this argument,” Beck said in disgust. “Is there anyone in the sound of my voice that disagrees with that? Is there anyone that says, ‘Oh, you know what? She’s one of them dames. Let’s pay her half.’ There’s nobody that thinks that way!”
President Barack Obama, accompanied by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., leaves after giving his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Jan. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
CLIMATE CHANGE
Beck said President Obama brazenly attempted to “shut anyone up with any different point of view on climate change” by saying “the debate is over; climate change is a fact.”
“The fact is, the debate’s not over,” Beck said shortly. “I’m sorry, Mr. President. The fact is, you have nothing. You can’t prove this point. There are far too many variables, too many things that change, too many things we just don’t know, too many things all these so-called scientists have gotten wrong … That seems to open the debate back up that man-made global warming is a massive hoax.”
THE ‘SORRY’ STATE OF THE UNION
“So what is the state of our union?” Beck asked his audience. “Not according to the president, his party, or the Republicans … not those who lied, passed blame to everyone else, but just according to a man, a man like any other man.”
“The state of the union is sorry,” Beck asserted. “…The state of the union is dark and dismal, and it needs to reconnect with reality. The state of our union is upside down.
But Beck said that if you happen to be a “lying politician” or a “well-connected crony,” the state of the union has “never been better.” In addition to having influence and control, Beck said they have a media that will “attack like a pack of rabid wolves” anyone who says anything remotely “out of line.”
The radio host asked whether Americans are a people that will let the president “and his elitist friends, his allies, his union thugs,” or “the Republicans and their business thugs” reshape America in their image.
A file photo shows the crowds of people who flocked to Washington, D.C. during Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally on Aug. 28, 2010.
“Are we the people who are going to allow them to send our children off to be taught how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical?” he asked. “And accepting that the debate is over, that the science is settled, sit down, shut up?”
Noting that #TheBlazeSOTU was one of only two news outlets to be trending on Twitter consistently throughout the State of the Union, Beck said he feels an optimism of “something coming on” like he hasn’t felt since before his 8/28 rally at the National Mall.
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“Live like people determined to be free, because good things are on the horizon,” he encouraged. “There is a change coming, and it’s a good change. There’s lots of trouble and everything else on the horizon, but good things are coming. Let’s live like men determined to be free.”
COMPLIMENTARY CLIPS FROM THEBLAZE TV
The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Get it all with a FREE TRIAL.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/29/americas-first-dictator-beck-explodes-over-president-obamas-state-of-the-union-address/
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/29/americas-first-dictator-beck-explodes-over-president-obamas-state-of-the-union-address/
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Failed Policy — The 401(k) Shrinks In A Growing Economy
Disturbing new evidence that government policies are propelling us toward a poorer future turns up in a first-ever government examination of retirement savings plans like 401(k)s.
The report, from the Internal Revenue Service, shows that even though the economy is improving, the number of workers saving out of their paychecks for old age is shrinking. So is the amount they save, down 6 percent in real terms from 2008 to 2010.
Additionally, the number of Americans deferring part of their wages into 401(k)-type plans fell in 2009 and again in 2010.
Two-thirds of taxpayers with jobs saved nothing in retirement plans.
Among twenty-somethings, only 1 in 8 or so saved.
While chock full of important new facts, this pioneering IRS report has not prompted a single news report except for this column at The National Memo. How can it be that the major newspapers, wire services and broadcast outlets all missed this?
The answer is simple: Wall Street pours a lot of money into keeping financial journalists focused where it wants attention. That most certainly is not on groundbreaking first-time reports like this one from the IRSStatistics of Income division.
With the economy supposedly on the mend, we would expect to see the number of people saving part of their pay for old age rising, not falling. And we would expect people to save more of their pay.
But the number of people with work is down, too, by 3.8 million from 2008 to 2010 as measured in the IRS report.
That the number of workers fell more than the number saving may seem like good news, but it misses the larger point that for more than a decade the U.S. population has been growing much faster than jobs.
Since 1999 the median wage, when adjusted for inflation, has been stuck at a bit north of $500 per week. Average wages have grown, but that is due to raises for those making $100,000 to more than $50 million, W-2 wage reports show.
The data also show that, to the extent Americans do have retirement plans, they tend to be used by older workers, who usually earn more and are not burdened by student loans.
Census surveys show that only a third of workers in their twenties have any form of retirement plan at work, compared to 62 percent of workers in their fifties.
But having a retirement plan and actually getting benefits are far from the same. Among all adult workers, only 43 percent say they have a vested right to either their own money they saved or money their employer set aside for them.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/failed-policy-the-401k-shrinks-in-a-growing-economy-2/
Here’s another impossibly stupid Common Core math worksheet. Skip Counting? WTH?
Yet another painfully awful Common Core math worksheet has bubbled up courtesy of Twitter.
This time, the math is for fourth graders, according to Twitchy.
The incomprehensible directions tell the poor nine-year-old souls forced to endure the worksheet to “use number bonds to help you skip-count by seven by making ten or adding to the ones.”
At the top left corner of the worksheet are the all-capitalized words “NYS COMMON CORE MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM.”
A subsequent Twitter conversation between the tweeter Lauren, who is trying to make sense of the assignment for her little sister, and someone named Relle is ribald and hilarious.
This awful set of homework problems is the latest in an ever-growing series of stories demonstrating the awfulness of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a curriculum — but don’t call it a curriculum! — currently being implemented by 45 states and the District of Columbia.
In December, Twitchy found the most egregiously awful math problem the Common Core had produced yet until that point. (RELATED: Is this Common Core math question the worst math question in human history?)
In November, Twitchy collected several more incomprehensible, unintentionally hilarious Core-aligned worksheets and tests. (RELATED: EPIC FAIL: Parents reveal insane Common Core worksheets)
In September, a father was violently arrested for expressing his frustrations about the implementation of the Common Core at a public forum in the suburbs of Baltimore. (RELATED: Now they’re arresting people who complain about the Common Core)
Also, over the summer, The Daily Caller exposed a video in which a curriculum coordinator in suburban Chicago perkily explained that students can be totally right if they say 3 x 4 = 11 as long as they spout something about the necessarily faulty reasoning they used to get to that wrong answer. (RELATED: Obama math: under new Common Core, 3 x 4 = 11 [VIDEO])
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/22/heres-another-impossibly-stupid-common-core-math-worksheet/#ixzz2rigYCHqX
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Recent presidential tradition includes leaving a handwritten letter in the Oval Office for the next man who takes the o...
Use a hundred chart to find patterns for skip counting.
Ask students to count by tens starting at 17 and stopping at 100. So students would say 17, 27, 37, 47, 57, 67, 77, 87, 97.
On a hundreds chart, color in all the numbers you say when you count by two and start with two. Ask your students questions like; Will you always get an even number? What happens when you skip count by 5's?
Start and Jump Numbers:
Display a hundreds chart so students can see the numbers. Have students make a list of numbers beginning with 4 and skip count by 5. The 4 is called the “start number” and the 5 is called the “jump number”. Ask the students what patterns they see.
Roll a Pattern:
Give students a number to use for skip counting, such as 2, 5, 10, 25, or 100. Have them generate a starting number by rolling a number cube or picking a number out of a card deck. Have students complete their number pattern.
Place Value Dice Roll
Have students roll a three-digit number with place value dice. Have students choose a ten or hundred to count forward to or backward from.
Pattern Riddles:
Have students write riddles about patterns for partners to guess. For example, my pattern skip counts by 10 and has 63 in it. What other numbers could be in my pattern?
This should be an ongoing activity and should be completed during morning work and not necessarily during the mathematics class.
Graphic Organizers in Math:
Put a rule (i.e. Skip counting by 3 in the center of a Frayer Model (Appendix B). Have students make different patterns that follow the skip counting rule.
Larry said that he would trade 2 new comic books for 3 old ones. Karen has 18 old comic books. How many new comic books will Larry give her in a trade? (Larry will give her 12 new comic books.)
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