Barry Throws In The Kitchen Sink
Oct 4, 2009 Political
In his weekly address to the American People, or at least the segment who can listen to him speak without reflexively gagging, the Resident tried to link jobs to the healthcare debate. This is an old gambit, not the exclusive property of the Dems- linking a failing project to another failing project, in a negative + negative = a positive.
Sorry Mr. Resident, that does not compute- both the stimulus AND the healthcare problem are still bad ideas. Spending money we do not have is always a bad idea, whether for an individual or a person, and that is the bottom line- but it doesn’t stop our Pretender in Chief from trying.
When I took office eight months ago, our nation was in the midst of an economic crisis unlike any we’d seen in generations. While I was confident that our economy would recover, we know that employment is often the last thing to come back after a recession. Our task is to do everything we possibly can to accelerate that process.
And we’ve certainly made progress on this front since the period last winter when we were losing an average of 700,000 jobs each month. But yesterday’s report on September job losses was a sobering reminder that progress comes in fits and starts, and that we will need to grind out this recovery step by step.
That’s why I’m working closely with my economic team to explore additional options to promote job creation. And I won’t let up until those who seek jobs can find them; until businesses that seek capital and credit can thrive; and until all responsible homeowners can stay in their homes.
It won’t be easy. It will require us to lay a new foundation for our economy – one that gives our workers the skills and education they need to compete; that invests in renewable energy and the jobs of the future; and that makes health care affordable for families and businesses – particularly small businesses, many of which have been overwhelmed by rising health care costs.
whitehouse.gov
Blah, blah, blah- and then he tries to say that all will be rosy if we just pass the healthcare bill, which is the furthest thing from reality he could say-
Rising health care costs are undermining our businesses, exploding our deficits, and costing our nation more jobs with each passing month.
So we know that reforming our health insurance system will be a critical step in rebuilding our economy so that our entrepreneurs can pursue the American Dream again, and our small businesses can grow and expand and create new jobs again.
That is precisely what the reform legislation before Congress right now will do. Under these proposals, small businesses will be able to purchase health insurance through an insurance exchange, a marketplace where they can compare the price, quality and services of a wide variety of plans, many of which will provide better coverage at lower costs than the plans they have now.
whitehouse.gov
Really? My visits to the doctor will help my job situation? Not so much– the last time I went to the doctor, I had to pay him- he wasn’t giving me money- so this might help the Doctor, but not so much myself. The Resident’s logic is flawed- but then it seems that is the case for most liberals, or socialists, or whatever they are now calling themselves- I call them deluded.
Case in point- Robert Reich-someone who is supposed to be intelligent, and he comes off sounding like an idiot.
So why is unemployment and underemployment so high, and why is it likely to remain high for some time? Because, as noted, people who are worried about their jobs or have no jobs, and who are also trying to get out from under a pile of debt, are not going do a lot of shopping. And businesses that don’t have customers aren’t going do a lot of new investing. And foreign nations also suffering high unemployment aren’t going to buy a lot of our goods and services.
And without customers, companies won’t hire. They’ll cut payrolls instead.
Which brings us to the obvious question: Who’s going to buy the stuff we make or the services we provide, and therefore bring jobs back? There’s only one buyer left: The government.
Let me say this as clearly and forcefully as I can: The federal government should be spending even more than it already is on roads and bridges and schools and parks and everything else we need. It should make up for cutbacks at the state level, and then some. This is the only way to put Americans back to work. We did it during the Depression. It was called the WPA.
Yes, I know. Our government is already deep in debt. But let me tell you something: When one out of six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, this is no time to worry about the debt.
robertreich.blogspot.com
Uh, yeah, right- What?! Try saying that, but instead of government, insert the concept of an individual- when an individual is unemployed, now is not the time to worry about the individual’s debt. That doesn’t make sense does it? Neither do his next paragraphs-
When I was a small boy my father told me that I and my kids and my grand-kids would be paying down the debt created by Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Depression and World War II. I didn’t even know what a debt was, but it kept me up at night.
My father was right about a lot of things, but he was wrong about this. America paid down FDR’s debt in the 1950s, when Americans went back to work, when the economy was growing again, and when our incomes grew, too. We paid taxes, and in a few years that FDR debt had shrunk to almost nothing.
robertreich.blogspot.com
Read that slowly, because it offers some insight on liberal progressives- they can’t add. If you start with the debt accumulated during the Depression, in, say 1930- and then jump forward to when Robert says we paid down that debt in the fifties- well, that is twenty years- a generation. So it would be true, despite Robert’s words, that his kids would be paying on that debt.
And that debt is nothing compared to this one- so the Resident wants us to add to the debt by piling on a trillion dollar healthscare plan- once again, I say it- Liberals can’t add, nor apparently should they be entrusted with other people’s money- because they will spend it- extravagantly. Just witness the cost for the “lost” trip to Copenhagen- millions of dollars wasted- and the Resident apparently doesn’t think that is a big deal. What ignorant arrogance.
The Resident could have made a difference- but instead chose to help out his cronies, ACORN, the Unions, and all the rest of the goons that helped him get elected. But he has forgotten one thing- or perhaps it just never occurred to an Ego like his- it is not about him- it is about the people of this country, all the people of this country.
And if the people are pushing back this hard, there is probably a very good reason.
Perhaps he should find out what that reason might be.
I’m just saying.
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Tags: debt, government takeovers, healthcare, idiocy, lies, progressives
On Economics, He Knows Not What He Does
Sep 7, 2009 Political
BHO, our “Beloved” Resident, has been tinkering with the economy, and like a child who doesn’t know when to step away from his finger-painting, has been producing mud, instead of something we might want to put on the refrigerator with magnets.
His biggest problem is total ignorance of life in general, and the lessons of the Great Depression in particular. That would be OK if only he had advisors who were steeped in real- world economics, but instead, he chose to surround himself with cronies who believe as he does, a dangerous thing if you are trying to run a country, especially a country in economic trouble.
Now, because he has been listening to the wrong people, and also because he chose to string this crisis along, so people would have their attention diverted, and he could (hopefully) push through pet causes while we were distracted, we could be looking at another Great Depression, one that reduces our capacity as a country to respond to the world’s needs.
This is not good, and only serves to point out the ineptness of this administration.
There are “troubling similarities” between the US President’s actions since taking office and those which in the 1930s sent the US and much of the world spiralling into the worst economic collapse in recorded history, says the new pamphlet, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.
In particular, the authors, economists Charles Rowley of George Mason University and Nathanael Smith of the Locke Institute, claim that the White House’s plans to pour hundreds of billions of dollars of cash into the economy will undermine it in the long run. They say that by employing deficit spending and increased state intervention President Obama will ultimately hamper the long-term growth potential of the US economy and may risk delaying full economic recovery by several years.
telegraph.co.uk
Too true- but then one asks the question, “Is this intentional?” I mean, if you take Rahm Emanuel at his word, where he states to “Never waste a crisis”, you have to ask yourself if the “crisis” is being extended artificially merely to push through more of an agenda than the people would freely accept. If so, then this administration is deceptive at best, and treasonous at worst, allowing the people they are supposedly “governing” to suffer needlessly.
The paper, which recommends that the US return to a more laissez-faire economic system rather than intervening further in activity, has been endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan, who said: “We have learned some things from comparable experiences of the 1930s’ Great Depression, perhaps enough to reduce the severity of the current contraction. But we have made no progress toward putting limits on political leaders, who act out their natural proclivities without any basic understanding of what makes capitalism work.”
telegraph.co.uk
Bingo! An economist who gets it- not some Krugman poseur economist wannabe, who just happened to get a prize for “showing up”- rather than for real world economic theory. Hussein’s administration, rather than listening to Soros and his ilk, (and yes, he is part of an ilk), should be listening to economists who know what they are talking about- that’s always a good start.
The policy responses to the debt bubble demonstrate crude political consideration rather than economic understanding. If excessive government indebtedness is a major source of the problem, why increase the government debt? Why encourage households to go yet further into debt?
The prognosis is catastrophic if projected government policies are not cut back. According to the White House’s own estimates, the federal budget deficit in 2009 will be $1.6 trillion, approximately 11.2pc of the overall economy, the highest on record since the end of the Second World War. In 2019, the national debt will represent 76.5pc of the US national economy, the highest proportion since just after the Second World War. In such circumstances, the international reserve status of the US dollar will not survive. As it fades, so interest rates on government securities will rise and the real burden of servicing the debt will increase. In such circumstances, the US economy will teeter on the edge of a black hole.
telegraph.co.uk
We are already there, and falling fast- what this administration has done has not helped, but rather pushed, or as one of the Residents really great “advisors”, or Czars, Cass Sunstein, has said, describing his technique of “social engineering”- “nudged” us towards the precipice.
Prosperity and full employment in the US will only be restored by a return to laissez-faire capitalism. Our study outlines a radical, but politically feasible, approach. Monetary policy should be expansionary. But, on the micro-economic side, tariffs and other trade barriers should be repealed unilaterally; a “Right-to-Work” Act should reduce the minimum wage and curtail the powers of unions; and business regulation should be reduced. Individual banks and their counterparties should not be bailed out, although the system should be protected by ensuring that failing banks are wound up in an orderly fashion – this is the only way to restore market discipline.
telegraph.co.uk
This administration should listen to these people- they actually make sense, rather than the “Looking Glass” theorists there are now. Quit naming “Czars”, and start learning how to govern- something that has been remarkably lacking from your agenda until now. Yes- I know that this will really piss off your “base”, but most of them can be placated with just a slight increase in their meds.
Do it, do it now, do it for your country.
And quit listening to those idiots.
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