Obama And His Team Miss The Mark – Again
by Big Dog on Aug 26, 2009 at 05:03 Political
The Obama team of nincompoops has missed the mark since he took over the helm of state here in the good ole’ US of A. First we had to pass the stimulus right away or the world would end. We were told that with the stimulus unemployment would not go above 8% but that without it the rate would be above 9.5% and maybe higher. They passed the huge bill (one that contains very little to actually stimulate) and unemployment went up to the number it would ONLY reach if we did NOT pass the stimulus.
Now, before some liberal responds and tells me that unemployment is a lagging indicator let me say that I know this and I did not expect unemployment to lower with the stimulus. Obama and his team were the ones who claimed the stimulus would keep unemployment down so they are the ones with whom you have a beef.
I have said all along that we did not need the stimulus and that the recession would clear on its own as all recessions have done in the past. The major recession that turned into a depression took that path because of government interventions very much like what is taking place today. The interference of our government is the reason the rest of the world had a depression and we had a Great Depression.
Right now, countries that did not have huge stimulus packages are well on their way to recovery while we still linger in tough times. I have been told by several liberals that I communicate with that the recession is softening and that we are on our way to recovery. They tell me that this means the stimulus is working. First of all we were told the stimulus would jump start the economy. Then when that did not happen we were told it was not meant to jump start the economy and that it was actually designed to take affect next year. Now that things are “softening” the stimulus is suddenly the reason and is meant to work this soon.
Only about 10-15% of the stimulus money has been allocated so if the economy is getting better with only that relatively small infusion shouldn’t we cancel the other 85-90% that we were going to spend? If we are on our way to recovery without all the stimulus money then let’s save it so we can reduce our debt.
I think we are in for some serious trouble ahead because of the careless and unsound monetary policies of the Obama administration. While things are looking a little better (stress little) now there will be problems next year. Obama is already revising his estimates of unemployment for next year from his unrealistic 7.9% made in May to 10%.
U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion next year, both higher than previous Obama administration forecasts because of a recession that was deeper and longer than expected, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said.
~snip~
Administration and congressional budget officials expect the unemployment rate, which was 9.4 percent last month, to keep rising. White House officials said the rate likely will rise to 10 percent by the end of 2009, averaging 9.3 percent for the entire year. It will worsen to a 9.8 percent average in 2010 instead of the 7.9 percent estimate in May. Bloomberg
Joe Biden told us before that this is worse than anyone thought and now they are saying it again. It was made worse by the careless spending and haphazard approach to addressing it. They can blame this all on Bush (and he along with the Democratically controlled Congress certainly share in the blame) but it belongs to them. There were plenty of economists who said that the stimulus was the wrong way to go. Couple that with the huge number of items that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy (and everything to do with paying off political supporters) and you have a recipe for disaster.
The Obama team will be hit with a double dip recession. The recession we are recovering from will make a slow improvement into the beginning of next year. Then we will get hit with another recession which will drive us down again. This will be accompanied by inflation the likes of which have not been seen since the Carter administration.
Numbers are looking up a little but they are deceptive. Businesses posted “profits” last quarter but many cut workers from their workforce and pared down about as far as they could go. This time we have cash for clunkers which numbers wise was a success and will be a good thing for dealers (if they get paid). It will be a failure in the long run because of what it did. It allowed people who had functioning vehicles that were, in most instances, paid for to trade them in and get up to $4500 of TAXPAYER money to buy a new one. Now they have a new bill to contend with. If we have this double dip recession as I suspect (and as some economists are predicting) will these people fall in the same boat as those who bought houses they ended up being unable to afford?
The clunkers program probably took people who would have bought cars in a few months and enticed them to buy now. This means sales numbers will decrease in the coming months. The real issue is the program itself. Pay attention closely. This program was conceived only a short time ago and it is already over. In that period of time the paperwork required of dealers became a substantial burden, the computer network set up to accept the forms was inadequate and crashed a number of times. The deadline for submitting the paperwork has been extended a few times and dealers are not getting paid in a timely fashion.
Two things strike me about that. If dealers are kept waiting for six or eight weeks for reimbursement some of them will go bankrupt and be forced out of business. Also, if the government cannot effectively manage a 3 billion dollar program for a few weeks what makes anyone think it will be able to handle a health care system involving trillions of dollars. If a clunker took a mountain of paperwork and reimbursement is slow what will a doctor have to go through to get paid and what will a patient have to go through to get treated?
Keep this in mind when they tell you they can run health care. They could not run cash for clunkers without making it an administrative nightmare full of delays. Imagine how it will be when it is health care.
The Obama team has been inept at figuring out what the economy is doing and they continually admit they did not have a clue. Their fall back position is to blame the Bush administration (without mentioning the majority Democrat Congress in place when this happened) and say that they inherited a mess.
They got a mess but they made it really bad and now it ALL belongs to them. So they need to stop whining and start getting things right.
They can start by recalling the stimulus and not spending any more money and by also ending the overhaul of health care.
Let’s face it folks, the last think we need to hear after Obamacare passes is “we underestimated how much this would cost and we were really wrong about rationing/wait times/death panels…”
By then it will be too late…
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Tags: health care, ineptitude, Obama, stimulus, unemployment, waste
t is sooooo childish to keep trying to pin this financial fiasco on Bush- just like liberals to shift blame from the true cause- liberal pie in the sky proposals- and try to smear someone who hasn’t been on the scene for eight months.
When will Hussein be a man? Grow a pair? Take responsibility for HIS failings?
If he was a real man, he would resign, but nooooooooooo- he’s not the first idiot president- Carter has that honor- but he is the first “post-racial” idiot president.
Obama is shrewd and calculating. He knows exactly what he is doing, which is to destroy America as we know it and bring in socialism. The evil men he has around him are proof of that.
The deficit could soar as high as 14 trillion in ten years, and he has the absolute gall to lie and say that he will cut the deficit in half before his first term in office?
That’s doing a lot of assuming here- one, that he will have more than one term, and two that he can even make a dent in the deficit- certainly not with Healthcare, and cap& tax.
I have now come to the reluctant conclusion that Nobama cares not for us, nor for the USA- he seeks to tear us down and keep us down.
Probably has Mommy issues- raised by his granny while his mommy was off doing God knows what with Allah knows who.