Obama’s Missed Opportunity with the Stimulus
As for the war, the effort to establish a new Democratic majority, Obama seems to have thrown that endeavor overboard in the rush to get through his stimulus plan and placate the Democratic Congress. If the Democrats were going to occupy the center of the political spectrum and pull in all but the extreme rightwing of the GOP, you would expect not only a far different bill (one which mirrors the public’s aversion to the spend-a-thon) but rhetoric which more closely tracked the New Politics and optimistic bipartisanship which were the cornerstone of Obama’s campaign.
Instead, the president has turned sharply partisan. He’s now employing the harshest language of his brief political career. He has taken to misrepresenting the Republicans’ position, as even the AP noted in his press conference Monday night: “At least three times he suggested that some unspecified number of his Republican critics want to ‘do nothing’ about the economic crisis. GOP leaders consistently have said they want the government to act, but they think Obama’s plan is too heavy on spending and too light on tax cuts.”
Obama has also adopted the pretense that the Republicans lack well-grounded substantive objections to bill. They are, he says, merely peddling “failed theories.” (That would presumably include Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economist who is on the president’s advisory board and labeled the stimulus plan a “$800B mistake.”) We are, many pundits have noted, back in “campaign mode,” not presidential governing mode.
Gone is the sort of inclusive, big-tent language or respectful attitude toward his foes which attracted many moderates and even Republicans to his campaign. Entirely absent is any effort to negotiate on the real substance of the bill, for example to include tax rate cuts which might draw in substantial Republican support or utilize defense spending (in lieu of domestic pork) which might allay concerns that the stimulus is nothing more than a Trojan Horse for the liberal welfare state’s expansion. Instead, we have a mix of Jimmy Carter’s peevishness and Bill Clinton’s slipperiness. This is not the stuff of which broad-based coalitions are formed.
Moreover, he is perfecting the art of scare-mongering. As Fred Barnes points out, bipartisanship has been replaced by fear as the favored technique:
But if you only have three Republicans, it is not a bipartisan bill by any stretch of the imagination.
I mean, when Democrats claimed that when George W. Bush got ten Republicans(ph) to vote for his tax cuts back in 2001, they all said only ten Democrats, that’s not bipartisan. This isn’t either.
The strategy that Obama, the president, and his aides are using is one called a “panic strategy,” in other words to say things are so terrible, if we don’t pass this immediately, including a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with stimulating the economy or even ameliorating some of the pain of the recession, if we don’t get it passed, as the president said today, he said it will be a “darkening disaster.”
This is all a far cry from the moderate, post-partisan candidate who won in November. Less than a month into his presidency Obama has chosen to govern along strictly partisan lines and employ rhetoric as divisive as any we heard in the Bush years. He will, because he has majorities in both houses of Congress, get his stimulus bill. But a price has been paid, and not just the trillion dollars for the stimulus bill. He has, far earlier than anyone imagined, sacrificed the chance to deprive the congressional Republicans of defensible political ground and to sweep their voters into a centrist bloc.
That was what many Republicans feared might happen — that Obama would create a new governing coalition which would all but make them irrelevant. But they are resting easier these nights, knowing that Obama has turned out to be pretty much like every other liberal pol.
“Less than a month into his presidency Obama has chosen…”
Nope, choice has little do with it. Barack Obama is too intellectually shallow to do anything but rely on his far left of center default positions. The man simply hasn’t done the necessary reading and overall studying to handle his daunting responsibilities. I was among the very first individuals who saw that clearly. More people are now coming to the same conclusion. Think about for a minute or two. When is the last time we had such an inept president? But why would you expect anything different? Everybody with a lick of sense knows that Obama was elected primarily because of the color of his skin—and not the content of his character.
“If anything, the “mandate” was to restrict the size of government.”
Don’t look for any restriction on the size of Government any time soon. With the “Stick it to us”bill Government will bloat and Campaign supporters who are due their “pay to play” will indeed get paid.
Sickening.
I knew you’d get to the race angle again somehow, David. Someone needs a new song to sing…
I love this part though, buddy: “I was among the very first individuals who saw that clearly.”
This can’t be empirically verified, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say this has more to do with overestimating your own importance than being first to recognize the REAL truth about our new president.
Is it too early for I told you so?
That’s strange: when Obama won the rest of the western world started to move (very slowly, but certainly) towards the right. The left hoped the economic crisis would win the rest of the world for them. And they hoped they can sell Obama to the rest of the world as they did to Americans.
What they didn’t know is that the rest of the world, at least of the western world, actually NEVER WANTED a guy like Obama as the POTUS. They shouted about it on their demonstrations of the protest but deep inside they knew: if only America would listen to us and do what we want, we are screwed. Now it did happened. Did anyone notice that there were no big celebrations across the western world neither on the election nor on the inauguration days? That’s because nobody REALLY wanted a guy like Obama. They said they did, but they knew they didn’t. “White man’s hypocrisy”.
Every single western country except for Israel “wanted” Obama, but was totally shocked when he really won: AMERICA WON’T PROTECT US ANYMORE, NEITHER POLITICALLY NOR FINANCIALLY – NOW WE HAVE TO CARE FOR OUR PROBLEMS OURSELVES…
In this new situation civilized people outside the US tend to be strangely(?) conservative. All the Left wanted, hoped for and pushed (through the unions, e.g. – remember the French strike?) is somehow in vain. People on the ground don’t buy “capitalism failed” sh—t. The media prase Obama and NATIONALISATION, blame capitalism and Bush, but the people on the ground go and vote conservative or even libertarian, like in Germany. And the brainwashers on the TV cannot understand it: “The whole wolrd is sick of capitalism and those people go and vote for the free market! How stupid can they be?” Well, smart enough not to want your socialism, that’s for sure.
The Israely election yesterday has demonstrated the same: world financial crisis “caused by evil capitalsts” and the Left (Avodah, Meretz etc.) have lost voters like never before!
Something goes wrong for the world communists. Marx said: “Communism cannot win in one single country” – they need the whole world, first of all the rest of the capitalistic world. And somehow it doesn’t work. And after the disaster on the Wall Street yesterday, when Obama’s “stimulus” had stimulated the market to run away, it becomes more and more obvious: Obama will socialism, it won’t work, we will go the other way.
Be fair. People did not vote because of his skin but for his seeming intellectual capacity and vaulting rhetoric. And America proved her political greatness in voting for Obama. That is the pure, unsullied concrete historical fact.
But Obama is a lawyer by training and breeding and he is into something that is way over his head. The audacity of dreams and hope is just not enough to cut it. He knows law: he knows nothing of Keynes, von Mises and Hayek.
“…than being first to recognize the REAL truth about our new president.”
OK, I will throw the ball back into your court. What is “the REAL truth about our new president”?
REAL Truth?
Partisian, dishonest, lacking in character, manipulative, petulant, temper tantrum prone, un-american, political hack, inadequate, inexperienced, scared, backbiting, vengeful….
So irresponsible that his actions are the equivalent of yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre.
and one more thing….
INSECURE, craving attention, craving to be loved, will do anything for acceptance.
He plays to the ignorant and downtrodden because those are the easy marks from whom he can buy love with our money.
The guy has a screw lose and real, deep seated emotional problems.
I guess you have not checked the latest polls. The conservatives have to work to insure that the economy of the country spins out of control for them to have any chance to regain power. Interesting tact to take in a time of crises. It does not seem to be playing well outside of the wingnuts. Right now they are derive all their power for a narrow base in the conservative south
To Marina-
You hit the nail on the head regarding the Eurocrats reaction pre & post inauguration. (speaking in broad generalities) The Eurocrats claimed to want Obama but I think that is only because in their elite, America-is-scum world, they assumed we were so redneck, racist, rightwing (whatever) that it would never happen and they could say whatever they wanted. Then it happens and there is an almost immediate recoil.
I am studying in Europe and, at the same time, laughing my head off at the people over here. When Obama was elected, Europeans at all levels were ecstatic! America was coming off its high horse and discarding militarism, unilateralism, blah, blah, blah. This would be a new era of international cooperation & economic success.
Then, as the inauguration drew closer, I started seeing newspapers asking ‘What have we gotten into?’ and wanting to know where Obama stood. I don’t think Europeans listened to anything besides Der Spiegel, BBC, & whatever French people have, for information on Obama so they never heard anything about Obama beyond “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN”. There was a conservative backlash of ‘OMG, this guy actually IS that radical (and spineless)’ as people realized they might not be able to depend on the US to be the global bully/whipping boy.
Now that Obama is in office, it’s even more amusing because people are flipping out! No one believed he could be as clueless or delusional as the Right claimed he was. Start with Gordon Brown & his British Jobs for British Workers rhetoric which led to the wildcat strikes. Then move to Obama’s protectionist trade policies (which they should have expected…NAFTA, anyone?)and threatened trade war. Add the corruption of his cabinet & the resurrection of Clintonite policymakers that only succeeded (arguably) because they were in an economic bubble. Europeans are getting exactly what they asked for and they are getting very nervous. Needless to say, while I’m not looking forward to living under Obama, I do find some sadistic pleasure in the fact that Europe will also have to live under him.
This fool has begun his own demise by burning bridges early in the game and losing confidence with Americans. He demonstrates who he really is as opposed to who he was pretending to be when he ran for office. His camp knew the American public could not stomach who he really is so they created his “unifier” persona as well as many others.
Oblamer’s continual finger pointing, also very tiresome. Hello,… the election is over,….all know the song lyrics by now.
That cape and snappy costume doesn’t seem to fit anymore.
Very insightful.
#10 which conservatives are working for the economy to spin out of control? What I see is Republicans rediscovering fiscal conservativism and taking a stand against the bankruptUS bill. Fiscal conservatives (and we are not just from the South, I’m from Chicago) do not work for, or hope for economic collapse or stagnation. We do see at least the latter, and possibly the former, coming. Excessive spending and borrowing by citizens encouraged by our government (both parties) got us into this mess. Government spending more borrowed money will only make it worse. Fiscal conservatives’ hope is just that, if we do have to endure this insanity, those who are not too far lost to socialist ideoogy will come to their senses and help us return to sanity.
George – I think you are describing yourself
The only reason Obama is turning “sharply partisan” is the GOP showed they are not interested in bi-partisanship. The Stimulus Package is the prime example. Nearly all of them wanted 100% tax cuts. Tax cuts won’t work if you don’t have a job!
It’s the cuts in education Nelson and Collins wanted that especially iritate me. Building new schools and refurhing existing ones means more contruction jobs, improves learning conditions in classrooms, and provides a needed jolt to the economy. It’s not Obama who is missing these opportunities. It’s the Grand Obstructionist Party.
David, Perhaps my mocking tone about “the REAL truth” wasn’t obvious enough. It wasn’t I that claimed to have any knowledge of being among the very first individuals who saw the truth clearly….
That was you.
You also said: “Everybody with a lick of sense knows that Obama was elected primarily because of the color of his skin—and not the content of his character.”
Which I find intriguing, if only because you repeat it so often. You and your white guilt stuff. I can only speak for myself, but the man’s race didn’t even factor into my vote. He wasn’t the one saying “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” when…well, they obviously aren’t, remember? You don’t think that might have had something to do with Obama’s victory?
And here you are, trumpeting this race nonsense when the guy has two wars, an economic crisis, and experts like you to please. There ain’t room on the plate for the black stuff, dude. Let it go.
Pat J:
What, you want to send money for school construction to areas that are closing schools due to declining enrollment?
http://minnesotaindependent.com/25937/minnesota-schools-finding-uses-for-stimulus-funds
Yeah, that’s really smart.
And, no, the GOP didn’t want 100% tax cuts, but they were promised 40% tax cuts – which were not present in the bill.
Why not take a look at a Blue Dog Democrat’s ACTUAL stimulus plan?
http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/Blue-Dog-nips-Obama-with-a-better-stimulus-idea-39358182.html
It spends 1/3 the money and is timely, targeted, and self-limiting.
Unless you really WANT the government to decide what treatments you and your family can receive from your medical provider:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our children are being enslaved by the government even as we watch.
Right Far Right—ahhh, hello, the conservatives have no power to ensure the economy spins out of control. We just need to sit back and watch the far left do that for us. Have you seen the latest polls? Obama has only been in office for three weeks and he’s sinking faster than the Titanic.
Pat J: Tax cuts do work if you don’t have a job! How, you ask? The people who have jobs spend more money creating the need for employers to hire more people. Will you enlighten the thinking world as to how this stimulus that passed will create jobs in the next few months. Obama said there will be disaster if it didn’t pass immediately. We’re waiting for your response.
The GOP never did lose their fiscal conservative beliefs. (Wait, hear me out.) They simply lacked the courage of their convictions, as they lacked leadership. They have been afraid of the Press, and have been voting based on the polls. This is what pols do when lacking leadership. Now, they see the public turning back to fiscal resposibility as they see how they’re getting screwed. This has given them courage.
As for the GOP being a rump Party, this is true. The country has drifted away from our value system. This does not make us wrong, just unpopular. We’re clearly on the defensive right now, but we have found some ground we can defend. We can begin to rebuild from here, especially as our warnings about Obama are being proven to be completely accurate. This is the key. People are now thinking that maybe we weren’t being paranoid and irrational. He really is that bad!
It’s like adolescents who think they know better than their parents, then they wreck the car. Oh. Oops. Um, maybe Mom and Dad were right? The GOP was right. The country got it wrong. We won’t be a rump Party by the next election. The momentum is shifting. Obama could be the key to victory for us for decades, now that people are learning their lesson.
Here’s the conundrum. One day the stock market is up and the next day we’re in a recession. It’s paper people…the dollar is made of paper…You can’t eat gold either. Just look at yourself stranded on a deserted Island, there are only 3 things of value in a situation like that; Food, Water and Shelter…Those things have value…This whole thing is called a “Pencil Whip”…It means that we will come out of this just fine in a few months…Trust me someone is making $Billions out of this so called recession…When something is not working something else is getting ready to emerge…We are on the verge of greatness…
Ms. Attitude, the problem with that is the Usurper has the media mesmerized. So J.Q. Public will never know about the polls. No tyrant has had the control of the media that the Usurper has today. That is because tyrants used the police to control the media. The Usurper has the media controlling itself. It’s the police he is worried about. When we get to box 4, the fact that the Usurper has no legal standing will matter a LOT to those sworn to uphold the law. As many a tyrant has found out, when the police won’t fire on the protesters, the tyrant doesn’t last long.
http://www.usastrike.org/
Meanwhile, anyone with an IQ greater then their shoe size understands that the ‘stimulus” ( yes, those are sneer quotes) package is just another robbery. Lets look at some facts;
FACT ONE. ALL economies are wave forms. They go up, then they go down. Repeat for eternity.
Fact Two. All Depressions end. All booms end.
Given fact two, the current depression WILL end. That means the issue becomes ‘when’. So the real question of the ‘stimulus’ bill is “Will it hasten the end of the current recession? The issue associated with that is what affect it will have on future economic waves.
If the Left was serious about ending the current depression, they would go with a 6 month pay-roll tax holiday. That would be the fastest and most economical way to put more money into the system.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/ron_paul_faces_11_trillion_bud.html
From the above URL;
“For financial year 2007, total receipts from individual income tax were in the region of $1.1 trillion dollars. ”
So a 6 month payroll tax holiday would cost about $550 billion, or 300 billion less then the current pork bill.
Since either plan would be “paid for” by printing money, the payroll tax holiday would be much less inflationary.
Plus it has the advantage of working, whereas the Pork Plan ( AKA stimulus plan) won’t.
It takes a certain sort of mind to believe that you can spend your way out of a problem that was created by spending.
It reminds me of an alcoholic that thinks the solution to their problem is another drink.
“Less than a month into his presidency Obama
has chosen to govern along strictly partisan lines and employ rhetoric as divisive as any we heard in the Bush years.”
..as any? How about far more than?
I cannot remember George Bush nor members of his administration making any such divisive or inflammatory rhetoric.
Oh, you must mean the BDS BusHilter crowd, who are going through their own withrawals at the moment.
But, as was implied, the Clintonesque finger-wagging and Carter gloom-and-doom-malaise-speak surely will not hold up for more than one year (let alone four) if the economy fails to improve and the Dow stays below 10,000.
So how do you Democrats like your new found communism?? Obama is an idiot and in less than 6mos, we will take on water like a submarine with screen doors. America has become too pathetically whining and sttupid to have their own country now. Now you have a Muslim Obamanation country..but 46% are still Americans…let the war begin
Pat J said:
It’s the cuts in education Nelson and Collins wanted that especially iritate me. Building new schools and refurhing existing ones means more contruction jobs, improves learning conditions in classrooms, and provides a needed jolt to the economy.
Pat J….the democrats have controlled education at all levels in this country for the last 40 years. Both parties have thrown money at Big Education in that time. For what end? Education certainly hasn’t improved. Test grades prove that. And heaven help us…those geniuses in Congress are Harvard trained. Thanks a lot Harvard! And now you want more money thrown at it? Question: what did you do with the first $3 trillion we gave you?
18. ElvenPhoenix:
——————
Ah, but in the last sentance in your first article mentioned “Whatever the final appropriation for school construction, this much is clear: There’s no shortage of projects to fund.” Along with that JOBS to go along with it.
And you’re wrong. The GOP Senators wanted the entire 100% of the Jobs Bill to be tax cuts! It’s simple logic really. IF you don”’t have a job, what good is a tax cut? Sorry Ms. Attitude. You’re wrong too!
@26
the democrats have controlled education at all levels in this country for the last 40 years.
That may be so. But it’s the Republicans who’ve been trying so hard to keep American children stupid for the last 40 years.
Pat J:
“But it’s the Republicans who’ve been trying so hard to keep American children stupid for the last 40 years.”
Why pray tell would they want to do that? Even if I grant you that Republicans only want to make money via big corporations, how do you expect them to do that if the employees (which are needed to actually do the work of said corporations) are stupid? If these corporations have smarter employees at all levels of the work force the company, the greedy top dogs only make more money. Innovation and progress are what drive profits and I can tell you that does not often come from the boardroom.
MS Attitude:
Try comparing his poll numbers with another President at this stage and you will see that he is actually doing very well at 68% positive. It is the Republicans who are mired in the 20% range. Try lookig up some facts before you speak. Oh I forgot how you prefer to live in fantasy land
23. typos_R_us:
I agree, in essence, with your argument. Except for one detail. Obama’s incessant fear mongering has everybody SKAIRT TO DEATH! All of his “catastrophe” and “crisis” talk are just bringing us down more. Thus, any monies that would be paid out with a payroll tax holiday would be saved, not spent. Until people begin to see the daylight beyond the clouds, they’re going to hoard any extra cash like chipmunks hoarding nuts.
So some form of stimulus is needed as well as a payroll tax holiday.
regards
@72
#5
And keep Ken Geithner off TV.
I’m washing my truck so everybody can see the “NO FEAR” sticker on my window. There’s a piss on Obama sticker, too.
If I can find a “Campaigner in Chief” or a “Fear-monger in Chief”, I’ll add that to the collection.
20. Ms. Attitude:
So True; And “We The People” are on board.
we get the leader we deserve. we the people have become lazy, entitled and almost child-like. we take, but dont earn our way in the world.
who is obama? he is not an enigma, but a product of his chicago environment. nothing here will suprise me. dont underestimate him though, americans have very very short memories, and that is why he is doing this now. we will rapidly forget, and he will be re-elected. he will do incredible damage to the country. already my friends and i say, “America, it was a good idea”.
Why do Republicans hate America?
Honest Jon. It doesn’t matter. If the money goes into savings, then it bails out the banking system in such a way as to not have the bankers think it’s ‘free money’ and spend it on pajama grams, which are a stimulus we can all get behind! Or on top of, your choice.
RFR;
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/scoreboards/by_the_numbers2/by_the_numbers
Where is the source for your claims? Or is it just something everyone in your neighborhood knows?
If you are so sure that the Usurper has a higher approval rating then any other President 3 weeks into his honeymoon, then prove it. Show some numbers and sources.
I think you are bluffing and I’m calling you.
Ann 141:
Which Republicans would that be and what would give you that idea?
Obama may come to regret that he had the opportunity to join with Republicans like McCain to forge a national, not a party, program to counter the recession. The moment has passed; the rest of his term may become increasingly the bitter partisan knife fights we’ve seen before. And Obama and the Democrats cannot count on winning.
I’m keeping close track at:
http://thepurplecenter.blogspot.com/
Regardles of what happens something needs to be done. If President Obama fails, we all fail. I am a Coservative myself and truly hope the Republicans have nothing to gloat about. This is not about Party Ideology. this is about getting the Economy back on track.
Do the majority of you even realize the Global Economic problems that we are having? Managers who have collected millions in pay and bonuses for not only mis-management but taking much of yout production off shore. I think they call it “Going Off Shore”. Western Businessmen have created a very bad situation.
Furthermore, will you Yankees get off the Race Issue. Obama was elected by the Majority, the people of the United States. Reason: Obviously they thought he was the best man for the job.
Eric
Frankfurt, Germany
“Do the majority of you even realize the Global Economic problems that we are having?”
Absolutely, do you Euros realize why?
“Obama was elected by the Majority, the people of the United States. Reason: Obviously they thought he was the best man for the job.”
Not Exactly. The Usurper won the election because the stock market crashed. No crash and McCain is President. Not much of an improvement but at least McCain is eligible to be POTUS.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/president/
53% to 46% isn’t such a landslide under the circumstances. Neither is 365 to 173 in EV’s. Considering that there were serious issues with the voting in several states, with the FBI running investigations still, the Usurper cannot claim a mandate.
Keep in mind that the Usurper is in office illegally. That means the bills he signs will become null and void the day he resigns, or if we get to the 4th box, the day after he is hung.
Germany let Hitler get away with stealing their democracy, but the USA won’t let the Usurper get away with stealing ours.
Thank you for this post – the trolls are out in force on this one, probably because the spending is indefensible and utterly at odds with his campaign, which made him sound like he was committed to tax cuts.
His acceptance speech for the nomination was more telling: independent of solidifying Democratic constituencies with dollars, this is a man who really believes one can spend one’s way into a future where all problems are solved. For more: On “The American Promise”
All I know is, last year I got a job overseas in China, and for the first time in my working life I’m making good money. If this economic ship-of-fools and their “stimuli” wreck the economy badly enough to send me home anytime soon, I’m going to be really grumpy.
i know it is not the republicans who hate our country.we would never sit in a church for 20 years and allow a pastor to scream God damn america. we loved working towards the american dream but thats old news. obama is spending us into socialism while he flies around in his expensive plane to charm us into hell for our grandchildren.