The Obama Campaign’s New False Narrative
On Wednesday night, former president Bill Clinton gave a long-winded address (as is his wont — few like the sound of their own voice more than him, with the possible exception of Fidel Castro) in an attempt to make an excuse for the current president’s pathetic job performance on the economy. Here is the essence of his argument:
President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. No president — not me, not any of my predecessors — could have repaired all the damage in just four years.
So is it true?
Well, first of all, the statement is misleading, in that it implies that Clinton started with a weak economy at all. Despite all the nonsense by James Carville and others during the campaign in 1992 about George Herbert Walker Bush creating “the worst economy in fifty years,” Clinton actually inherited a robust economic recovery, and, as shown in the graph below, GDP had been growing at a four percent clip all through the election year (recall that Clinton won with only 43% of the popular vote because Ross Perot took so many votes from Bush).
Of course, there is also an implication that Bill Clinton is responsible for the economic boom that he inherited, and that no president could have done a better job than he did. But in fact, much of the boom was due to a) the end of the Cold War, with its so-called “peace dividend,” b) the explosive growth of the Internet and the associated tech bubble (which popped in 2000, just in time to hand George W. Bush a recession as he came into office), and c) a Republican Congress in 1994, the first in four decades, forcing a reform of welfare and getting the deficit under control, something for which Bill Clinton had no plans to do at all when he came into office. Clinton cannot take credit for any of these things, other than handing Congress over to the other party as a result of his health-care and gun-control overreach in the beginning of his term.
Now, let’s look at the current situation. Here’s a graph from about a year ago showing how little we have bounced back in terms of job growth relative to past recessions.
Considering that we’ve been stuck at above 8% unemployment for the past year as well (including last week’s jobs report), just continue the graph for the current economy with the same slight upward slope to the right.
While this particular graph only goes back a few decades, the current “recovery” is actually the worst since the end of World War II. In almost every other recovery for the past several decades, employment returned to pre-recession levels within three years (the most recent one during Bush’s first term took almost four). In this recovery, if we extrapolate the current trend, it’s still several years away. Note also that in each case, the curves are symmetric, that is, the slope of the recovery was about the same steepness as the decline, except for the present one, in which we had a sharp and deep job loss, and a very shallow recovery. And if we were to consider the real unemployment number, taking into account those who are underemployed and those who have given up, it’s probably closer to twenty percent, not eight. In other words, Great Depression levels.
Other than Obama’s ridiculous lie that HE CREATED 4.5 million jobs since taking office, what angers me most is his current claim that he inherited an economy that was shedding 700,000 jobs a month and thus the economy was in much worse shape than anyone realized and therefore he needs four more years to “fix the mess” George Bush left him.
If memory serves, the economy didn’t begin to shed jobs at this magnitude until it appeared that Obama was going to be our next president. I suspect it was this growing realization by the nation’s employers that led to the increase in lay-offs, not “the policies of the past” and George Bush.
I suspect that during the immediate months leading up to Obama’s inauguration a significant number of businessmen came to the realization that an Obama presidency would do great damage to the economy and began to cut costs in any way they could, including a reduction of their payrolls, as they prepared for the storm that was coming their way..
These employers may not have known exactly how Obama would torpedo the economy, but they knew in their gut that with his ascendancy to the White House a hard rain was about to fall.
As we have seen over the past four years, their instinct was correct. If my suspicions are correct, Obama not only failed to set in motion policies that would allow employers to begin hiring again, but he, himself, was the cause of many of the lay-offs in the first place.
Dave, if you look at the numbers, the economy started tanking in 2007…. which of course just happens to be when the Copperhead Party took over the Congress (you know, the part that spends money and allows regulations to take effect).
There is a very dangerous narrative being put forth on the American public and the narrative goes something like this – it is justifiable for one party to completely squandered away a surplus left by the other party but it is not justifiable now that the other party’s incumbent president did not clean this mess up soon enough.
For the first time in American history, we have witnessed one party completely squandered away a surplus left by the other party with 2 wars and also implement 2 terms of tax cuts during these 2 ongoing wars. This has not occurred in any other time in history, where our wars are completely not paid for. Then we somehow have this dangerous narrative that it’s somehow justifiable for the American public.
Now, we have this same dangerous narrative that somehow suggests that it is not justifiable for the other party’s incumbent president to not clean this mess up soon enough. I am looking at this from an Independent’s perspective and I find this narrative to be very dangerous and troublesome.
JFK cut taxes (all brackets) in 1963. Revenues increased from 115 billion (1963) to 180 billion in (1964) a 55% increase. In 1980 revenues to the treasury were 550 billion. After Reagan’s steep tax cuts revenue swelled to 915 billion, an 80% increase in tax receipts. So how is it that the “narrative” is false? The only problem with the “narrative” is that the right can’t articulate it. Americans are reaping what they’ve sown with the parvenu they’ve elected.
You really missed my point. Name one president throughout our history that has sent this country to war and simultaneously implemented tax cuts for the entire country? How do you pay for not one, but two ongoing wars with 2 terms of tax cuts? This has never been done throughout our great American history. This was a travesty.
“You really missed my point. Name one president throughout our history that has sent this country to war and simultaneously implemented tax cuts for the entire country?…” ~Dave, September 9, 2012 – 9:21 pm
Hmm, Viet Nam war, from approx “1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.”
JFK cuts taxes in 1963. Smack in the middle of that conflict, already pretty hot. Sounds like an example to me, waddya think?
We’re not saying that it’s unjustifiable that Obama didn’t fix the problem in four years; we’re saying it’s unjustifiable that Obama made the problem far worse in every way, and has attacked freedom of religion. Obama is the most dangerous man ever to occupy the White House.
First, Copperheads were Democrats in the Reconstruction South. FDR and BHO both know exactly what they’re doing. They are socialists and they are never happier than when the private economy is tanking — they want it eliminated eventually. If FDR had had his way, the Depression would never have ended (as it was, it didn’t end until the GOP Congress elected in 1946 ended govt rationing of everything — a year after WW II ended). Unfortunately for the New Dealers, the urgency of saving the USSR from the Nazis made fighting WW II crucial.
FDR and BHO both know exactly what they’re doing.
—————
and THAT is the malicious truth. The current economy is not the result of bad advice or misguided policies or any of the usual things; it is the foreseeable consequence of legislation that co-opts 1/6th of the economy, of an uncertain tax policy that precludes sound planning, of regulation after regulation that raises the cost of production.
Look how much greater the level of dependency on Big Nanny is today vs. Jan 2009. That is not accidental; it is the goal. The umbrella of “disability” has expanded to include all sorts of things, many of them self-inflicted. And when people get used to what they perceive as free money, good luck shutting off the spigot.
Dave, I agree with you. I felt that what you say was very obvious to everyone at the time. I’m surprised that almost nobody ever mentions that the economy took a serious downturn as employers became convinced a few months before the ’08 election that Obama would win. Even before that, I think many of us sensed that McCain wasn’t a candidate that could win and that had an effect upon many business people’s planning. Something you didn’t mention but that also had an effect was that even when the economy bounced back after the post-9/11 recession, the MSM kept SAYING the economy was horrible. There were news stories every night hammering home the idea that the economy was so bad that by implication we needed Democrats to take over and fix it. This was nothing more than a cynical attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. The MSM were eager for their negative words to damage the economy and to some extent they did. For the MSM, the ends always justify the means regardless of the pain and suffering they inflict on our country and our children.
Something else that almost no one mentions is that when Republicans take over from Democrats, it’s necessary to make heavy investments in the military. I’ve never seen any numbers on this, but I’m almost certain that Bill Clinton almost totally depleted our arsenal of cruise missiles and didn’t pay to restore the inventory. Consequently, just as items were missing from the White House when GWB took over (including the ‘W’ on most of the computer keyboards), the new Republican president probably discovered that it was going to take time and money to replenish our armaments. When Obama leaves office the new president is going to have to spend money restoring NASA and the many military programs (possibly including our nuclear arsenal and naval fleet) that Obama has viciously slashed due to his socialist agenda. He is doing everything he can to permanently sabotage these programs and it can be seen in the fact that as we decomission nuclear power plants we are cutting holes in the boilers in an attempt to permanently disable them even if a future president wants to bring them back online.
The seminal event was Sep 8, 2008, when leftists and foreign governments decided to tank the stock market to get obama elected.
The underlying cause, of course, was the Marxists’ Loans-to-deadbeats program that guaranteed a future fiscal crisis, but the economy probably could have survived that without a waterfall event if it had been managed properly. Even if the politial criminals hadn’t tried to manage it, the collapse would likely have been much more gradual. After all, a relatively gradual correction had started in late 2007, when it at last became clear that the Marxists and their fascist tools in the financial industry had hidden the bad loans for years via derivatives that nobody except a handful of mathmeticians understood. As nobody chooses to recall, Bernake and Paulsen had both famously and publicly declared in the summer of 2008 that the economy was sound; and many economic indicators supported that view, including GDP, corporate earnings, and inflation. Debt indicators, of course, were not good and PE ratios were in the danger zone, but all-in-all, even in retrospect, it wasn’t at all clear that a catastophe was looming.
That summer, the odious twins Little Chickiue Shumer and Reaper Reid lost patience and both took shots at panicing the markets by declaring financial institutions insolvent. Shumer called out Indy Mac by name and Reid more circumspectly pointed to AIG. Such language was unprecedented at the time, and clearly designed to cause a panic. Yet, nothing happened.
But the Gallup poll following the Republican convention was leaked Sunday Sep 7 and showed that McCain/Palin had taken the lead for the first time, and. It was too much for the revolutionaries to take. They were too close to boarding the train into DC, like Lenin 90 years before riding into Russia, to let the matter pass. Sept 8, a massive attack on Lehman Bros began, with unprecedented volume for the entire market. The constant drumbeat of cratering stocks lasted for three months, not falling back 50% to normal volume levels until the manchurian was safely installed. The attack was far too large and lasted too long to have been caused by any set of traders. Oil rich foreign powers had to be the driving factor, but long-time anarchists like Soros were certainly in the middle of it. Soros was later convicted in Hungary of market manipulation during that period, btw. The SEC investigation into those events was quietly dropped once obama had the reins of power. Goldman Sachs, a central player, was eventually given a slap on the wrist, mostly so obama could use them wink-wink as the villain / whipping-boy du jour.
Within two weeks of Sep 8, the feds took over Lehman Bros, the famous Money Market run had happened, McCain decided to make a fool of himself, and as insurance, the oil shieks dropped the price of gasoline below $2 per gallon, and our own little Lenin was safely ensonced on the train to the White House.
Everything since was precipitated by a cataclysm that didn’t have to happen.
Is it any wonder that Putin loves his boy and that obama was bowing to the Saudi goat-herder withinn a month of his coronation?
Excellently done summary of financial war to seize power.
Can’t thank you enough.
I remember, in the latter part of 2008, hearing business owners say they were retrenching and hunkering down, just trying to protect themselves against the new burdens that a quasi-Marxist president with no sympathy or understanding for business would place on them. This was happening even before the general election, when odds were on the Democrat winning in November.
As I recall, there are stats showing a stock-market down-tick as soon as Barry O. sealed the Dem nomination (with his caucus chicanery etc.), and a bigger down-slide right after the general election.
So, much of the 2008-9 downturn was in anticipation of Obama’s damage. Add to that:
1. Obama represented ACORN when they were suing banks to compel lower mortgage standards.
2. Obama was one of the Dem. senators who blocked a cleanup of Fannie/Freddie, and who received big campaign contributions in return.
3. Wasn’t there some funny business involving his patron Soros in the lead-up to Nov. 08?
SO: The bad economy certainly owes more to Obama’s ignorance and malfeasance than it does to anything GWB did.
Okay – weo answered question #3. Good to have that info refreshed.
I know this much for sure – If Obama is reelected he will be inheriting a Big Mess from … … … himself. But don’t worry, he will then proceed to make the mess he inherited from himself look small by comparison and we will look back at his first term as “The Good Old Days”.
On November 6th
End The Reign Of Error
It is apparent to those of us who keep up with the reality of the situation that a second Obama term will be disasterous event for this country. However, polls show Obama in the lead. I think it is impossible to educate those worshippers in the time we have left, so we must outvote them. Make sure that anyone and everyone you know who still has any common sense votes on election day.
I know it is politically incorrect and rude, but I want a button to wear that says “If you’re voting for Obama you are too stupid to talk to me”
(I simply do not understand the polls!!)
Just call it “Democrats Against Obama” and it’s perfect!
Much as the MSM has destroyed it’s viewership by violating their trust with their lies the pollsters are fast destroying their credibility with the use of tailored questions and skewed sample populations to generate the answers wanted instead of the true situation. IMHO they have quite literally poisoned the well. I constantly hear from regular folks who feel like me that the last thing they would ever do is answer any telephone poll honestly, feeling that no matter what you say it would be manipulated into something else with clever trickery.
I wouldn’t hold too much faith in these poll numbers. There are two articles in Today’s (9/9/12) Drudge Report I should point out:
One showed Carter up by 4 points in September 1980, which grew to 8 points the following month in October. Reagan ended up winning by 9 points and took 44 states.
The other article showed Dukakis beating George HW Bush by 17 points after the 1988 DNC only to lose to Bush by nearly 8 percent.
There’s an old saying, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”.
Truth is here is what ozero really inherited,problems created by himself and his own party.The dirty little secret that if it gets out it sinks the lefts already leaky ship. Truth is the housing collapse and the ensuing damage to the economy can clearly be traced back to Jimmy Carter and Bill “Bubba” Clinton.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Clinton%27s_mortgage_deregulation_bill
I think it goes back to Carters 1977 reinvestment act that encouraged banks to reach out to low income communities by offering loans to minorities and the poor.
In 1995 Clinton revised this act, the CRA, by making banks meet a quota for a certain number of low income loans with punishment for the banks if they didn’t.
We know how all that turned out.
It was a disaster. Add in a little bit of Franklin Raines, Barney Frank and others and you have mortgages crashing,tarp, etc. It all originated with Carter and was made worse by Clinton.
The left,obabma regime david axelrot, have successfully blamed it all on GW Bush since it happened during his reign and GW didn’t take up for himself and we have not countered well enough. But it all started and was made worse under Carter and Clinton!!
Clinton is the key to real estate falling into the tank,people losing their homes and our wealth as a country declining in half over just a few years!! It was never Bush, always Clinton!Once Clinton responded to an obama lawsuit in 95 that blacks were being treated unfairly the rest as they say is history. People who can’t pay back loans not paying them back.
That why he said in the speech last night “no one could have turned things around in four years” because if people learn all the financial decimation was due to him that it was that bad due to him, it’s all over for the entire Democrat party!!
Its one thing for the incompetence of the ozero regime to be excused for the past three and a half years. Its quite another to discover that it was their fault to being with.If that happens we win, they lose, really quick.
The CRA was an important factor in creating the housing bubble, but it (and the internet bubble before it) still could not have happened without the artificially low interest rates created by Greenspan and continued by Bernanke. This insane easy money policy continues to distort our economy today, to the point that every piece of economic bad news results in a stock market boost, because the market anticipates further QE by the Fed.
Getting back to the main point of the article: Can anyone point to a single action by Obama that plausibly had a positive effect on employment? As far as I can tell, what little progress we have had over the past 3 years has been in spite of Obama’s policies, not because of them.
DH;
Your point looks completely valid.
I would remind the court that neither the CBO nor the OMB saw the Internet bubble coming, and that’s what caused the Clintoon surplus. Not a thing that he did, other than doing nothing. His tiny tax increase was probably a net negative, it was certainly nothing more than a tiny net positive, it can in no way explain the balanced budgets that followed.
I agree that it now seems much more likely that FDR sustained the depression and your explanation is exactly right about what finally ended it. I would add that coming out of WWII we also suddenly shifted to an anti-communist bipartisan stance, and that probably helped too. Britain came out of the war solidly socialist and stayed mired in recession until Margaret Thatcher.
This of course is relevant because Obambus wants to move us towards the same socialism, whether you want to say that he “is a socialist” or not (of course he is, good grief, though maybe one with somewhat different stripes than some previous ones).
THAT SAID, I really do think that this time it was different, and a President McCain would have done very little better to this point in time.
What is noxious about the Clintoon and Obasmus claims are two things, first that they blame the situation on Bush and/or Republicans (or at least a Republican theory of some sort), when whatever theories you think might be in play, the actual events were certainly not DESIRED by the Republicans nor called for as good in their theories, and were in fact caused more by the repeal in the Clintoon maladministration of Glass Steagall than any other single factor, followed by his treasury department’s approval of CDS being issued by AIG with no reserves, and only then do we even get to the Clintoon and Congressman Obambus pressing forward the CRA and all that folderol, which wouldn’t matter much except for the preceeding points, plus the refusal to listen to Bush or the WSJ and to reign in Fannie and Freddie before the crash. It was mostly bipartisan, and one can certainly argue it was more Democrat than Republican, whatever is dreamt of in your philosophies.
Oh, and the second point is that the economy was losing 800k jobs per month four years ago, and now it isn’t. Hoorah. WE HIT BOTTOM. Obambus wants credit for having hit the bottom and achieving a dead-cat bounce that barely covers the ongoing increase in population and has made dramatically NO dent in the unemployment? This is a huge and blatant lie.
I could go on (and on), but what am I even doing online at this time of night, and I want to throw in one tiny note I have not seen discussed, which is Joebiden’s horrible break of protocol in his speech. He hinted, several times, at how bad the financial disaster COULD HAVE BEEN, except for Fed actions and TARP (and by implication Porkulus and the GM and Chrysler bailouts, but those are much more arguable). It’s TRUE, we came very, very close to a much huger financial disaster, and it is NOT ALLOWED TO BE MENTIONED. But apparently nobody was listening except me, so maybe now I’m in violation. Ooops.
Ronald Reagan was able to turn things around within his first term, Obama is blaming others because he doesn’t have what it takes to do the top job.
Josh – The financial disaster was delayed not avoided. The time will soon come that bailing out the TBTF banks will be impossible.
The financial disaster was delayed not avoided. The time will soon come that bailing out the TBTF banks will be impossible.
Most likely true, didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.
Still, maybe kicking the can down the road has worked, a little. A lot of the failure modes were literally unthinkable, now they have at least been thought.
Maybe the very worst that might have happened in 2008/2009 will be avoided, when things hit the fan whenever, could be 2020, could be Monday 7AM. Maybe PJM should have a pool.
Thank you Mr. Simberg for your second great column in a week.
“Was fixing the economic mess really too big a job for any president?”
If by “fixing” you mean completely reforming the tax code that is more concerned with rewards, punishments, and redistribution than revenues, or any other truly significant reduction in modern cronyism: probably not. However just about any president other than Obama could have kept from making it worse.
Was fixing the economic mess really too big a job for any president?
Yes. Governments don’t create wealth, governments destroy wealth. Every action Obama has taken to help “A” has hurt “B through Z”. The market may not always be right but government is invariably wrong.
Think back to Reagan. He faced a much more difficult problem than Bambi. When Reagan entered office the Establish Republicans and Democrats in DC were utterly flummoxed, they didn’t have a clue, so they let Reagan do what he wanted to do. Naturally he’d fail and the Establishment hacks would cackle gleefully as they took greater and greater control of the country. As we all know, Reagan didn’t fail. His reforms ushered in the greatest era of prosperity that the world has ever seen. What Reagan knew was that the most ignorant person in the country was better equipped to run their life than the combined brainpower of government. But Reagan repeated America’s Original Sin, he demonstrated that “The People” drive the country and that “The Divine Right of Kings” belongs on the ash heap of history. The would-be Kings of Congress wouldn’t have it, they declared “The Era of Reagan is OVER”… and it is. How’s that 20% unemployment looking?
We know what the answer is, every member of Congress knows what the answer is, Bambi knows what the answer is, Michelle knows what the answer is, even Paul Krugman knows what the answer is… and it’s not Congress, Bambi, Michelle or Krugman, it’s “The People”. We need a massive downsizing of the Public Sector, we need a fundamental restructuring of the regulatory regime, we need “the rule of law”, we need the Private Sector to lead us into the future. We need to rid ourselves of the Parasitic Political Class.
There actually was something different about this recession.
It was not the usual business cycle type of recession like all the others we’ve endured since 1945. It was not a stagflation recession like the one Reagan had to deal with either.
This recession was caused by a financial collapse, similar to the U.S. in 1873 and 1929, and Japan in 1990. The result was a massive deleveraging of business and personal debt, depressing consumer demand for years to come. Even someone who has a job but who is underwater on his mortgage isn’t going to be rushing out to buy lots of stuff. It’s a negative wealth effect.
In 1873 in America, there was a financial panic which led to *twenty years* of slow growth and high unemployment (which historians sometimes call “The Long Depression”). We didn’t have FDR back then. We didn’t have a welfare state. We didn’t have liberal anti-business policies. The American economy was much freer. Still, it did NOT recover quickly. It stagnated for years and years.
Financial collapses aren’t easy to recover from, because of the tremendous loss in credit and high-powered money. Take a look at the experience of other countries:
http://i48.tinypic.com/23ih5rp.jpg
As you can see, recovery has been slow everywhere a financial collapse has occurred.
This chart doesn’t show the U.S. in 1873-1895. But that one was similar. A long, hard, difficult slog.
Does anyone truly, really ‘believe’ that this Marxist POS wants to do anything other than destroy our economy and the ideology of a ‘middle class’ social structure? Puhlease. Wake up, ‘Merica!
If 0bie gets reelected, welcome to the USSA.
UMMKAY!
The definition of “fool” is someone who tries the same methods and strategies that previously failed, yet expects a radically different outcome this time around.
Yet, this is precisely what Obama is pitching to us. “I’ve failed abysmally, yet re-elect me so I can ‘stay the course.’”
With Obama, it was all a question of priorities. The holy grail for all liberal socialists in this country was and always will be single-payer socialized medicine. When Obama controlled all of Congress, it was his one opportunity to achieve socialized medicine and he took it. In fact, a case could be made that he wanted more people dependent on unemployment, disability, and welfare because that would make those people even more dependent on government for just about everything in their lives. And when you’re dependent on government for everything, you’ll vote for the government bureaucrat that gives you the most benefits. Trouble is, you eventually run out of money for all these benefits, as we see in countries like Greece today. No, I think Obama knew exactly what he was doing in ignoring the economy and focusing on Obamacare. He knew that a chance like this wouldn’t come again for 100 years, and even at that he had to ram it through Congress because the American public didn’t want it. This has to be the most evil president we ever had, simply because he has placed ideology over the welfare of this nation. And I don’t know what you call a thing like that, but it sure isn’t president.
During the last term of the Clinton presidency, government and business leader became concerned, some even fearful, that software would shut down tha nation’s infrastructure when the clocks rolled over to 01/01/00. This concern led to large scale purchases of new hardware and software at an accelerated pace to replace systems much earlier than normal.
The IT people were working over-time to insure that every piece of equipment with a computer program was “Y2K” compliant.
When the year 2000 arrived, the lights stayed on, planes did not fall out of the sky, and the financial system did not suffer.
Purchases of hardware and software started to decline in late 1999 as the old systems were upgraded or replaced before December 31, 1999. After 1999, it took a couple of years for businesses to begin purchasing hardware again. Like “Cash for Clunkers”, the “Y2K” panic moved foward the replacement cycle at the expense of future purchases.
“Y2K” was running parallel with the Dot.com bubble which managed to support the economy until the following year.
To a large extent the Clinton budgetary surpluses were projected future surpluses that were based upon an ecomony that would continue to expand tech expenditures far into the future without any changes in market conditions.
Great article, PJ Media, and great comments, all. And each are so pertinent to the discussion. Imagine if we got 10% of the 4050% of people who DO NOT vote, to cast a vote, what do you think would happen? I agree Libertyship, a perfect storm brewed in 2007 to light a fire under the gumption of the one payer system sycophants….and the idea of unionizing such a mobilization of 1/5 of our nation’s economy, was an even larger motivator for this crowd. Imagine the power of their biggest lobby in ensuring future Progressive Democratic Agenda…..God have mercy on our Republic, that what has become of the Nation, might be restored….the worse part of the current debt, is that we have about $20 Trillion in private consumer debt that really prevents our nation of consumers to improve our growth. Can we survive this? It takes 7-10 years to recover from Bankruptcy, and many private citizens are facing that divide…..
This is a bad narrative for the Dems to have out there if Romney wins. I believe Romney could spark a fix even before inauguration by signally a halt to the capricious regulatory environment. Calming the waters with a promise to start a top to bottom review of regulations. Not necessarily to get rid of them but to modernize and ease the compliance burden. That right there would bring a lot of the pent up business activity out into the open. The Dems will then start screaming about taxing the hell out of them but Romney should step on that.
Speaking of Dems. I remember when I got transferred to DC back in 2000. Shortly after, Virginia got a Republican governor who want to reduce the annual value tax on cars. The Dems threw a fit but the measure passed. Then a few years later, the Dems were screaming about all the money they missed out on because of all the new and higher value cars that had been bought since the tax reduction went into effect. They really couldn’t comprehend that people bought new and more emissions efficient cars because now they weren’t looking at the big value tax every year. They really are that stupid.
I think you are exactly right. If Romney is elected, the markets will be up the next day, and more investors will be willing to put their money into American business again. Once people know Romney is serious about discarding Obamacare and getting rid of some of the other noxious policies of the last four years, everyone will be amazed at how quickly the economy starts to recover.
And of course, we can all be sure that if there is a quick improvement in the economy after the election of Romney, the press will say, “look at this robust recovery! If we had only known, then Obama could have gotten the credit he deserved for it.” Naturally that’s the way that the dim bulbs among us will continue to allow themselves to be deluded.
“I believe Romney could spark a fix even before inauguration by signally a halt to the capricious regulatory environment.”
I don’t think it is capriciousness that has business in fear it is maliciousness. This Administration is very consciously using its law enforcement and regulatory powers to reward its friends and punish its enemies. If the communist SOB gets a second term, there will be businesses that “coordinate” with the administration and there will by businesses that are closed.
During Carter, a routine complaint: “job is too big for one man”.
1. Many, many knew Obama had no capability before he was elected.
2. Obama has proven he is STILL incapable of accomplishing what he says even with a majority in Congress.
3. With the obvious and glaring incompetence already established and verified, what makes anyone think he can do anything of any value with four more years of “power”?
Delia is correct.
The question in my mind is how so many think Obama actually tried to better this nation economically. In point of fact, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Obama intended all along to destroy our capitalist system and replace it with a socialist one. Furthermore, the larger ObamaIntention was to destroy this nation by transforming it into a weak, socialist, medically second rate, open bordered, bankrupt one.
I can understand people voting for Obama the first time, but voting for him this Nov. 6 truly boggles my mind. I don’t believe America is that anti-American.
In fact, that’s why I predict Obama wins California, New York and Pennsylvania. And loses the rest of the map. This isn’t pie in the sky. I just don’t see how the people of the United States have totally lost their love of freedom in four years.
If Obama wins, I say bring all the troops home. We no longer have a people worth fighting for.
You’re making the error of personalizing this all about Obama. Are all his economic advisers socialists too???
I can’t believe that Tim Geithner, Christina Romer, Warren Buffett, Paul Volcker, Larry Summers, and other Obama supporters with good capitalist credentials are deliberately out to destroy the country. WARREN BUFFETT is a Marxist-socialist out to destroy the country??? Give me a break. That’s really fringe conspiracy stuff.
I think they advised Obama to put into effect the remedies they had been taught would fix the problem–and they were genuinely surprised when those remedies didn’t work as advertised.
I don’t know how you can go to an Ivy and NOT be a socialist and it is very easy for these rich financiers and economists to be socialists. After all, they maintain their ownership and being “friends” with the Administration means they get all sorts of goodies thrown to them by the government and, likewise, all sorts of bad things thrown AT their competitors. Comrade Obama has rewarding friends and punishing enemies down.
The Communists usually study and learn from their mistakes. Their threats to German private wealth led to the demise of the communists and the ascendency of the NSDAP. In the late ’20s Germany was much more likely to turn communist than Nazi, yet by adapting Mussolini’s take on socialism through “co-ordination” of business with the State, the Nazis secure the backing of most of German private wealth – and those that didn’t back them, they destroyed. Search “gleichschaltung” for a look at how the Germans did it. You don’t seriously believe that Boeing voluntarily came to an agreement with the communist thugs at the IAM? Somebody in the Administration whispered to them about all the bad things that the Administration could do to a company one part of which does a lot of business with the government and the other part of which is heavily regulated by the government. IAM has long used the fake safety issue as a tool against airlines with which it had a beef. What if the FAA or NTSB suddenly found that the new 787 was unsafe or, worse, that there was some systemic safety problem with the workhorse 737? It has long been the case at the state and local level that the OSHA analog inspectors and the wage and hour inspectors only called on unionized employers when there was a beef between the employer and a union but made life a living hell for non-union employers in the union states. Just move that whole system up to the federal level and you can make sure a business “coordinates” with the Administration or ceases to exist. No capitalist wants competition and if he can use the government to eliminate his competition, he will. It ain’t a coincidence that Buffet owns the railroad that benefits from the Keystone Pipeling not being built. Fundamentally, all the useful idiots you listed simply expect to be a part of the crony system so of course they can support Comrade Obama’s objectives.
They don’t think about as destroying the country, they think about it as fixing the country.
Lenin wasn’t trying to destroy Russia either, nor was Hitler trying to destroy Germany.
It’s just a wonderful coincidence that while “fixing the country”, the good-intentioned people doing the multi-decade fixing get to live like the tyranical emperors and outlandishly wealthy business barons that they depose. obama is a classic example.
You’re making the error of personalizing this all about Obama. Are all his economic advisers socialists too???
“I can’t believe that Tim Geithner, Christina Romer, Warren Buffett, Paul Volcker, Larry Summers, and other Obama supporters with good capitalist credentials are deliberately out to destroy the country. WARREN BUFFETT is a Marxist-socialist out to destroy the country??? Give me a break. That’s really fringe conspiracy stuff.”
“I think they advised Obama to put into effect the remedies they had been taught would fix the problem–and they were genuinely surprised when those remedies didn’t work as advertised.”
No it is not fringe conspiracy stuff. Birds of a feather is more like it. We all know Dear Leader is a marxist from birth, through college, into professional life and now as the president. He surrounded himself with those like minded syncophants. Question: If any of your list were not marxist followers, how come none of them has told DL that his policies are not working? In fact, his and their policies are working–to destroy America.
You are correct about their being taught Keynesian economics though.
“Almost four years ago, we elected a man to fix this economy, despite his complete lack of experience or credentials for doing such a thing, and abundant evidence even at the time that wealth redistribution was a much higher concern for him than wealth creation.
I would submit, Rand…that no…we didn’t. We elected a man to fix (as we always do) the perceived weaknesses of his predecessor. Bush 43 was brutally portrayed by the left and their pocket press as being “racist, stupid, warmongering, cowboyish, and too far to the right”.
Obama had zero capacity to handle complex economic modeling. He was an ineffectual lawyer with almost no significant achievement in that field. The conspiratorial media not only covered his weaknesses, they auto-selected him and poured hot tar over anyone and anything that tried to expose him as a fraud.
This is a man who wrote not one, but TWO autobiographies at a time when nobody knew or cared who he was. These were littered with coverups of their own.
Stanley Kurtz has singularly done investigative reporting and digging that has been not just missing, but INTENTIONALLY suppressed.
If we continue to posit theories that Obama is incompetent and this alone explains the sustained tanking of our fiscal health…we give credence to the suggestion that “he’s a good guy, trying his best”.
Cloward-Piven were professors at Columbia when Obama went there for two years to hide in plain sight. He attended the Socialist Scholars convention there. He dipped deeply into rabid,radical, anti-American extremism. He sat for twenty years in the James L Cone’s vitriolic acid bath of hatred and retribution. He absorbed the ACORN/SEIU voter fraud and overthrow mentality.
He participated in the assault on banks and bank executives, the indoctrination of youth with his buddy Bill Ayers, the anti-capitalism of the Midwest Academy and the New Party (formerly the Socialists of America).
Bill Ayers called himself a small c communist, stepping on the American flag. Rashid Khalidi and his wife were frequent dinner guests, they both loved and admired Edward Said.
Are we to completely ignore the pathway of an entire lifetime and reduce it to nothing when we examine the policies, acts, deeds, and outcomes when this man forms an administration that wished Van Jones to be a key component? Or has Anita Dunn, Sam Graham Felsen, or George Soros part and parcel of it?
The enemies of free market democracy abound in this administration. They WANTED energy prices to skyrocket. They said that “yo daddy and yo granddaddy’s 401k’s” were an abomination. They want to seize your children’s inheritance.
They not only want to “redistribute” private property, earned wealth, accumulated goods…they want to punish those who currently have those “advantages” for all the “sins” they committed in obtaining them. “You didn’t build that” is not a slip of the tongue. It’s the foundational principle of the anti-capitalist.
So, let’s not pretend that Obama’s policies are producing an inconsistent result with their intended outcomes.
He and the small c communists have overloaded the system because they intended to overload the system. They are suppressing wealth because they intend to suppress free market recovery. Cloward-Piven wanted a “guaranteed annual income” and sought to achieve it through overloading the system and robbing the “haves” to give to the “have nots”. They just needed to collapse the system by getting cities to go bankrupt, then states. The federal government would have to step in and “save” them.
The communists of this stripe are “small c” because unlike their upper case cousins, they don’t invade with guns and tanks. The Fabian style does incremental stealing of wealth and hides their hatred of the “majority” behind words of peace, unity, compassion. This fools the low information voters’ eyes and ears.
The Republicans, being wholly inept at exposing the scheme and blissfully ignorant and uninformed are terrible message-makers and even worse at framing the debate between free market democracy and small c communism. They get painted into a corner every time, clumsy, oafish, extremely untalented at presenting our views.
True, the conspiratorial, traitorous, lying, propagandizing media posing as “news gatherers” and “journalists” make it an uphill climb, but we are saddled with Chicago Bears level quarterbacks and Chicago Cub levels of futility.
Obama isn’t failing to “fix” a broken economy. He is doing precisely what his entire lifetime from Frank Marshall Davis to Don Warden, to Jeremiah Wright to Rashid Khalidi to Alice Palmer to Danny Davis to Bill Ayers to George Soros have sought to do all along.
The sooner we recognize and admit that, the sooner we can stop trying to answer a question that doesn’t exist. Obama isn’t failing to do to the economy anything…he is succeeding.
It’s payback. It’s retribution. It’s overthrow.
You should copy your post, paste it onto email & send it to Paul Ryan & Mitt Romney. Perhaps seeing the truth in black & white will help them in their message-carrying endeavors.
bobbcat
If the Republican Party is not actively reading PJM, NRO, Stanley Kurtz, Daily Caller, Powerline, HotAir, Instapundit, Ace of Spades, Townhall, Drudge…they are beyond my meager ability to help them.
NRO has an array of spectacular authors, essayists…and the ONLY investigative reporter left in America.
PJM has the greatest collection of brilliant minds in the non-leftist sphere of influence in one place. VDH alone would make visiting here or NRO mandatory. NRO has Jonah, Lowry and McCarthy.
We have Glenn, Rich Fernandez, Roger, Roger, Michael Ledeen, Prof Rubin, …and maybe the country’s most astute communist analyst, Ron Radosh.
To think that we would have to beg the Republican Party to inform themselves properly is completely disheartening. The commenters here are better than anywhere else on the web.
NRO, Powerline, HotAir and PJM utterly destroy the facade and fraud of the small c communists and their co-conspirator Propaganda and Lies Ministry. (Ace does as well, but in a Not Safe for Work mode)
We shouldn’t have to tell our own side to pay attention to their best sources of knowledge and information. The fact that we might have to…is the problem in a nutshell.
Brilliant reply, CFB. I completely agree with everything you said in your original comment and with everything positive you said in your reply. But I don’t think we need worry. Ryan and Romney are smart and definitely high information guys.
“We shouldn’t have to tell our own side to pay attention to their best sources of knowledge and information. The fact that we might have to…is the problem in a nutshell.”
This is what infuriated me when I was in government and continues to infuriate me yet today when we’ve had a four year demonstration of just how evil the modern US Left is. I spent almost 20 years fighting Alinsky-disciple union goons mostly on behalf of Republicans. I carried a lot of water for Republican administrations. Yet, if I were to show up at some Republican grip ‘n grin it wouldn’t be five minutes before someone recognized me and said, “here comes trouble” or words to that effect. It is something about how Republicans choose candidates and Party leaders; the vast bulk of them simply cannot tolerate controversy or confrontation and don’t want much to do with people who can handle confrontation and controversy. Oh, if they get in trouble, they’re quick to call you but they want to put you back in a closet somewhere as soon as the shouting ends and if anything goes wrong they’re looking for a reporter to tell how reasonable they are and how they’d never let those bad things happen and how it was just overzealous underlings who’ve been sent to their room now.
Comrade Obama and is accomplices are truly evil people and it is patently obvious to anyone who has dealt with unions or other Democrat/Left front groups in the last ten to fifteen years; the real changes on the Left/Democrat side took place from mid-Clinton on as they became more and more openly communist and often criminal. Part of it I suppose is how segregated the Country has become; Blue places are very Blue and Red places very Red. Most Republicans never see Lefties in their natural habitat behaving the way they do when they don’t have to fake it to pass in more civilized society. When I was Alaska’s director of labor relations Swartznegger’s guy and I were the only Republican appointed heads of a state’s labor relations functions in the Country; the rest of the LR heads around the Country were from very Blue states and were either Democrat hacks or powerless technocrats. Needless to say, he and I pretty much kept to ourselves when we went to confabs with our peers.
Lefties really aren’t that hard to deal with; they’re almost all one trick ponies and if anything happens that isn’t on their script, they haven’t a clue what to do. But you have to recognize them for what they are and deal with them as what they are. Our whole leadership seems consumed with this he’s a nice, well-intentioned fellow who just isn’t very competent meme. He’s not nice, he’s not well intentioned, and he is quite competent. He has quite competently eliminated the US as a World Power capable of unilateral action and quite competently almost restored the Caliphate. China can have its wayward province back whenever it wants it with just a threat to call the debt or refuse to buy any more of it. It is clear that the US won’t lift a finger to prevent Iran’s nuclear ascendency and the last gasp of Isreal will be the phyrric victory of destroying much of Iran as Isreal is destroyed by an Iranian nuclear attack. Then with the Zionist Entity destroyed they can return to trying to retake the old Ottoman territories in The Balkans and the Moorish territories in Spain. We’re pretty close to back to 1582 and trying to repulse them from the gates of Vienna, but now there isn’t the will or money in Europe to fight and a crippled, bankrupt US with a worn out military isn’t going to be there to save Europe again. I think Comrade Obama has been remarkably successful. It would be worth the trip to some lower level of Hell to sit and smoke and chat with the old KGB or GRU agent that first put the Dunhams in play. What a plan!
“We’re pretty close to back to 1582 and trying to repulse them from the gates of Vienna, but now there isn’t the will or money in Europe to fight and a crippled, bankrupt US with a worn out military isn’t going to be there to save Europe again.”
And the suited thugs of CAIR are salivating over how they’ll really hold Barack’s feet to the fire in a second term — i.e. forcing even more concessions to Islam. Or maybe they won’t need to force him, since he would have more “flexibility” then.
Two of you? Just TWO?!!
@alzaebo – Yeah, just two. All the other states with unionized public employees were either deep Blue or Purple with more or less Democrat government structures. In a unionized state, the state government and the polisubs’ labor relations function is on the auction block at every election. If the head, usually a director one level below the cabinet officers in a state or one level below the mayor or other chief executive in a polisub, is appointed, it is to be expected that a new administration of the other party would replace that appointee, but with positions with control over money, people, or stuff, when Democrats take over from Republicans they reach far down into the merit system non-political employees and dismiss, lay off, or neuter employees who’ve run afoul of Democrat constituencies or just to put Democrats in the positions.
When Republicans remove even appointees, the Left raises an unholy stink about how mean-spirited and partisan Republicans are firing all those selfless public servants, but the Democrats get rid of non-political technical or ministerial employees with impunity. The last time we had a Democrat take over from a nominal Republican, ’94, my new cabinet-level boss, one level above my supervisor, came in to our area on his first day in office and told us all that he’d campaigned with the unions for the job and had promised them that he’d get rid of all of us and replace us with people more acceptable to the unions. Every hire in labor relations or human resources had to be vetted by the unions for the whole two terms that governor served. I left after two years and worked for the Republican Legislature. When the administration wanted to hire me back four years later to fix the mess they’d made, the unions’ price was if they were to hire me, they had to also hire somebody directly from a union at the same level. Fortunately their pick wasn’t smart enough about actual collective bargaining practices to much interfere with me but he kept a steady stream of tales to my boss going that caused me some inconvenience at times.
As best I recall Alaska and California were the only states with a fully unionized state government workforce that had Republican governors at the time; I know the CA guy and I were the only appointed director-level heads of labor relations at the time, early 2000s. I had a much easier time than the CA guy. Our whole cabinet is appointed, so the AG is basically the governor’s lawyer, unlike the situation in CA, and we had a firmly Republican Legislature. Unlike most union states there really are effective opposing parties in Alaska and while it is hard for a Democrat to win statewide office, if a Republican does something stupid or scandalous or if the Republicans have one of their periodic fits of fratricide, a Democrat can get elected Governor, e.g., Knowles, or Senator, e.g., Begich. Basically, organized labor and greenies dominate the Democrats and oil and small business dominate the Republicans, mostly oil. During my time I often felt like I had Saul Alinsky on one side of the table and the Governor General of the British East India Company on the other; there’s a lot of pulling and tugging.
“he’s a good guy, trying his best”?????????
C’mon, man! That’s Washington Establishment propaganda.
His incompetence is precisely what the Democrat communists desired in a President. No brains; No scruples; No principles; No convictions; No background; Other than he, himself as a one note wonder.
All I’ve really seen in the last SIX YEARS is a crusade for status.
We are on the same page here, cybergeezer.
Not sure if that sentence of mine conveyed to you that I completely think the notion that Obama is “a good guy doing his best” is completely and wholly disproportionate to the facts and evidence of his entire life.
Reading my original post again, I thought it was clear. He is doing what he set out to do. What ALL of his closest associates ARE ON RECORD desiring. Frank Marshall Davis, Barack Obama, Sr., Bill Ayers, Alice Palmer, Jeremiah Wright, Don Warden, Danny Davis, the Midwest Academy, Michael Pfleger, Sam Graham Felsen, Carl Davidson, the New Party, Anita Dunn, Van Jones, George Soros, Cloward-Piven, ACORN/SEIU, UNO.
They ARE ON RECORD. All we have to do is examine what is on that record…and then examine that record.
Then…apply a layover of those ANNOUNCED intentions to Obama’s actions.
The Republicans have completely, utterly, wholly failed to do this. So, to my knowledge…has everyone else with the tools and capacity to do it. The conspiratorial Propaganda and Lies Ministry. And everyone on our side except Stanley Kurtz.
cf;
I’m not in disagreement with you. I do think your exercise of “overlaying” the actions with the intentions will prove what you are saying, but, will convince no one other than the people that already know he is a tool for the Democrat communists of America.
He has done nothing but what The Party wanted him to do. He has had no other direction than that; He has had no real vision of anything.
He is like the neighborhood juvenile that sees a more flashy skate board than his, and wants it. Michelle is no different.
Two cheap, totally unimaginative individuals. Two complete tools.
“He’s just a nice guy” is absolute B.S., and indicates a deep seated fear of establishment Republicans to take him on, to his face, about his lack of character. (And I haven’t seen “2016″ yet).
A “lack of character” is a grave deficiency for anyone in this position of power.
I would set my focus on that if I was debating him.
cf;
Also, see this article for an incisive analysis of America’s current situation:
http://www.american.com/archive/2012/august/americas-crisis-of-political-legitimacy
Yes.
I have said for years: the goal of the internationalist subversives is to destroy America’s economic and military might.
They are succeeding.
Photo of Obama as a student at Columbia? You decide:
http://craigadams.org/humor.html
President Pickpocket has been pretty open about what he was planning to do since his comments to Joe the Plumber. What’s his is his and what’s ours is negotiable.
If the economic problems are too big for Obama to handle, they are not going to get any easier in the next four years. I have a lot of confidence in Romney/Ryan and their ability to get the country on the right path. Let’s make sure we let BHO get back to what he does well, brewing beer and sitting in church and not hearing a thing.
There isn’t any question that the Marxist has deflated the economy and it doesn’t really have much to do with macro or micro economics, or stimuli and taxes.
The problem is that he has scared earners, particulaly small business people, shitless. And when they are scared shitless, they are going to hunker down, which means that money doesn’t flow into the economy, and EVERYBODY is hurt. It’s really that simple.
Just in case it isn’t clear why he scares earners shitless, consider among other things, 1 trillion in new annual gubabmit spending, 16 trillion in new gubamint debt, constant demonization of “the rich”, constant threats of higher taxes, the onslaught of regulations that has shut down the coal industry and cast a pall over virtually every other industy, the constant elevation of gubamint over private industry, and of course, obamacare and “you didn’t build that”.
Is it any wonder? Yeh, the recipients of redistribution love it. Unfortunately, the people being redistributed hate it, and just plain common sense tells them that they need to go in the bunker to wait out the onslaught.
It won’t stop if the marxist is re-elected. It will only get worse, and ultimately (like within a decade), collapse the economy in entirety.
On the other hand, anybody, including big-government Romney, who simply indicates that he or she wants to limit, just LIMIT for god’s sake, big gubamint, is going to cause a tsunami of economy activity. Heck, Romney can even raise taxes somewhat and it won’t stop it, as long as he puts the clamps on the regularory behemoth and explains why it is necessary for the short term. I’m not recommending it, just saying that it’s the ATTITUDE that will make the singularity.
And the tsunami will begin at minute one.
“Note also that in each case, the curves are symmetric, that is, the slope of the recovery was about the same steepness as the decline, except for the present one, in which we had a sharp and deep job loss, and a very shallow recovery.”
If you’ll note in the chart the black line begins to make that symetric move upward then a sharp downturn begins again.
If I’m not mistaken that little peak should coincide exactly with the day Obamacare was rammed through the congress and made law of the land.
I agree with the skeptics/cynics here – or the ‘realists.’ Barack Obama did not come into office with any plan to fix the economy. His overwhelming drive was to remake the US, part and parcel of which was wealth redistribution. That is, his only real interest in economics was clearly – and remains – as a plank in the construction of an essentially socialist society consistent with undoing America as a superpower.
This may or may not be the same as ‘destroying’ the US. Probably it is not. However, as his reference to going Roosevelt in the speech at the convention showed, the answer to all economic problems is vastly increasing government spending/intervention. His mind is made up. What is this called – reductionist thinking? I don’t remember the term.
He knows what needs to happen, thus every event is interpreted according to his view of good and bad guys, as well as the overriding program.
Obama has no interest in fixing the economy as a goal. To the extent that he expresses interest, economics is one of several tools to achieving the new America that ‘must’ be created – analogous to Jihad as one tool in the expansion and inevitable success of Islam, in Muslims’ eyes.
There are now a record 46 million Americans on food stamps.
” With 22.4 million households using food stamps, fully 15 percent of the American population is on the program. ”
” There were fewer than 31 million people on food stamps as recently as November 2008, but an aggressive effort from President Obama’s administration has helped build participation, with the total increasing by 44 percent since the president took office in January 2009. ”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/record-46-million-americans-food-200000079.html
Clinton and Obama are selling snake oil. The facts speak for themselves.
“DEMOCRAT,” comes after DEMENTED and before DEMONIC in the dictionary…
I am totally convinced that between the massive dumbing down of our population thanks to radical leftist policies, as well as the fact that almost half of the population is getting some sort of entitlement, and the sickening biased media, that it IS looking bad for Romney…
I also think maybe it is for the good…
Every people get the government it deserves, a re-elected Obama will certainly crash this nation into a depression that will make the last one look like a school picnic. Maybe this nation needs something like that to finally wise up and grow up. Especially since the filthy big liberal urban areas will get it the worst…
Let Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York go up in flames again…
Let the occupiers burn down Wall Street, let race riots begin again. Those of us in the red states, armed and loaded, will wait and clear out the rubble and begin again…
Think this is absurd?
Who would have believed a slimy, unqualified, and incompetent Chicago “community organizer,” named Hussein would ever win the presidency?
It CAN happen here…
I was going to post something very similar.
There are two ways to get rid of the subversives: one is to win in November (and keep fighting on forever and ever), the other is to watch them starve themselves to death (and fall into chaos).
The generations of brainwashed can learn to get informed or can learn by having the reality inform them of the true terms of the discussion.
Of course I hope that all that suffering will not fall on our Nation.
But we will win anyway.
After the HillaryCare fiasco in ’93, Mr. Clinton got a Republican Congress in ’95. The compromise decisions they both had to make in order to govern gave rise to the prosperity of the Clinton term. W. Bush got a Democratic Congress in ’07, which led to the housing bubble, and the collapse which ushered in Mr. Obama. It also enabled the passing of ObamaCare. And thanks to ObamaCare, in ’11 Mr. Obama was awarded a Republican House. Rather than ‘triangulate’ a la Dick Morris, he refuses all compromise, which is why we’re where we are. If we re-elect the gentlemen, there’s no indication that anything will change, and without action, the situation will just get worse. It’s preprogrammed. The fiscal cliff will exacerbate the jobs crisis. Failure to pursue an energy policy, other than to do without energy, will send the price of gas over $10/gal. The tax cliff should just about finish off anything that’s left of us.
Actually Clinton was partially right. The job is too much for Barry. All the rest is projection.
Buying into, “”the job is too much for Barry” or “fundamentally changing the U.S.” is a complete hoax. This is NOT about the economy; it’s about a choice, and the choice is between dependence on big government and lawlessness; or small government and the rule of law. That, is IT in a nutshell; everything else is just smoke and mirrors.
Barry is a Eurocrat hell bent on making the U.S.A. into a French state. THAT’s why there is an abundance of European money being poured into his efforts to destroy the constitution. Yes, “destroy”!!!!!!!
This is treachery, pure and simple, and Obama MUST be held accountable!!
Indeed … it is about whether we have confidence in our own ability to secure our future through our own decision-making (including the decisions to get others to help us) … or we lack that confidence and choose to submit to a small elite, that doesn’t know an individual from a statistical average, to make even highly individual-specific decisions FOR us, including how much of our earnings they will demand from us to facilitate their decision-making on our behalf.
Yes the job is too big for one man … or even the DC bureaucracy.
The problem is that Mr. Obama INSISTS that the solutions CAN and MUST come from him and that bureaucracy … instead of making sure that the 315 million problem-solvers in the USA are free to exercise their personal initiative and solve the problems around them.
After all, that might just prove that we don’t need to be employing as many in that bureaucracy; some might have to find jobs in the real world, instead of holding the high position of enforcers of the Progressive socio-economic moral order.
I would have some confidence if Romney was considering Sheila Bair or Stephen Roach or Mitch Daniels instead of Meg Whitman (seriously????) for SecTreas.
Still, one would think even the GOP should attack Bill Clinton’s “surpluses” as fake – besides the ‘peace dividend’ and the tax revenues from capital gains, the other reason for those surpluses was because the Social Security balance sheet was added to general revenue.
Sorry, I never had confidence in Obama on the economy, but Romney’s private equity lens is a real problem too.
In all honesty, the mire would have been put in the past if Daniel hannan were listened to.
Well, I am willing to say that Romney is willing to give Hannan more of a chance, than Obama.
OT.. Has anyone else noticed that Obama’s convention night speech is on practically every news webpage? I am more than certain they did not do the same for Romney. Our media is corrupt to the core.
I was out of the country on vacation for the past week and am playing catch up at the moment, so if this point has already been made elsewhere – my apologies.
What I am currently hearing from the Obamabots is that the economy was so much worse than he realized that he needs more than 4 years to fix it – he needs at least 8 years in office to undo the damage.
Now, my personal opinion is that he and the democrats in their greed for power took a normal economic correction (a recession) and turned it into a full blown economic catastrophe, but for the sake of argument let’s accept the democrats and Obammer’s premise. Let’s say the economy WAS worse than they realized.
Now let’s say Romney wins in November.
What are the democrats, Obumbler, and their lackeys in the media going to say if there is an economic recovery in early 2013 that immediately begins reversing the absolutely awful unemployment numbers?
Doesn’t that blow their argument completely out of the water and (finally!) put a stake through the heart of Keynesian economic theory….at least as practiced by the democrats?
I know they will simply claim Romney is getting the benefit of a recovery their policies were responsible for, but this goes against their very own current claims now that another 4 years of ‘experimentation’ is necessary.
The point I’m getting at is simple.
Provided we win in November, we absolutely have to keep the pressure on to completely discredit the social and economic theories of the democrats.
We can’t just claim the victory and then leave it in the hands of the republican party establishment to keep things honest.
Provided we win, this fight is only the next victory (the first was in 2010) in a long march of our own back through the establishments that created this mess in the first place.
If we do anything less, we are just turning our back to a dangerous and wounded foe that will seek nothing less than revenge for the defeats being handed to them. If we are not carful, we could find ourselves right back in this situation again.
It is not a surprise that revolutionary movements – as one of their first targets – seize the means of communication and information dissemination. Whether the Bosheviks or Stauffenburg’s aborted assasination of Hitler, seizure of the papers and radio were among the highest priorities.
The small c communists have been doing this in slow motion for at least 2 generations and have finally succeeded. As cfbleachers correctly states, if there were an honest media Obama would be down 35 points. They even – on rare occasion – admit this. I seem to recall it was Evan Thomas, if I’m not mistaken, that admitted that media support gave Obama at least 15 percentage points. And while empirically difficult to define exactly, the advantage is enormous. And unfortunately, in my view, it is insurmountable by convential democratic means.
The reason Obama is a ‘teflon’ president, as someone else in an adjoining article has stated, is because the media refuses to throw anything at him. That same media that made it their life’s work to destroy George W. Bush, has an appalling lack of curiosity when it comes to Obama. Hence the state we are in. What frustrates me as much as anything is that the bias is so blatant and so open that you would think any self-respecting people would be offended by the naked manipulation. But apparently, not enough are. On the contrary, they seem to lap it up. There’s nothing more worthy of contempt than sheep willingly being led to slaughter.
“Almost four years ago, we elected a man to fix this economy…”
According to Barry, we elected him to tell us the truth. LOL.
However, we actually elected a man w/o a gag reflect. A man who will say anything. A man who thinks he can fool all the people all the time. A man who, if re-elected, will take this country down faster than anybody has thought possible.
Not sure if he’s our Incompetent-in-Chief, Liar-in-Chief or Marxist-in-Chief.
reflex
“1. Many, many knew Obama had no capability before he was elected.
2. Obama has proven he is STILL incapable of accomplishing what he says even with a majority in Congress.”
Obama accomplished a lot in his first term. Unfortunately what he accomplished had nothing to do with fixing the economy, and probably made it much worse.
An uplifting note:
I watched “God Bless America” being sung in it’s entirety, on national TV this afternoon!!!!!!
And with a military “fly over”!!!!!!
That’s got to piss off a lot of Obama’s minions. Just watch the “news”.
If you watched the Richmond NASCAR race last evening, you heard a great version of “God Bless America” by a wonderful tenor, a heartfelt invocation, and “The Star-Spangled Banner” played by a military brass band before the race. It was a night race and it had been raining so there was no flyover but there usually is. Oh, and you can see that every week at NASCAR races from February to November.
LOL..It’s so wonderful to see so many RePUKE’ head explodeknowing that MY preident will win and then officially round up all you right wing Nazi clowns and deport you. Can’t wait. Hope they use guard dogs to do it.
Why don’t YOU come and round me up; I’d just love to see your ignorant, lazy, lefty punk ass coming up my driveway. My door would be the last thing you’d ever see.
Ok there. You seem to need a little help. First of all your nic would be much better if you dropped the first g…as in “Lyin’ Ryan etc”. See that way it rhymes and sounds more aesthetic to us unsuffistikated roobs.
Next, when you’re projecting – ’cause the only Nazi on this thread is you – try for a little hysterical (sic) accuracy. The Nazi’s didn’t deport. They exterminated. So read up a little and try to be more accurate next time. Kay?
Geez, I hate incompetent trolls. Whoever funds your ass needs to send some better quality trolls. Taking your pus filled scrawny little ass apart is too easy.
And, for the record, ESAD.
Lying Ryan the Repuke Taliban
Do you kiss your mother’s arse with that mouth?
I get it.THis is where all the poor sadpukes come to piss their pants and moan. I don’t believe Anne rOmney has MS.I demand to see her doctor’s certificate proving it.
Dick Me! Hey I understand I can’t leave the country because if I do they will kidnap me and hold me for trial for being a war criminal…waaa! I never served a day in the military and the entire military hates my stinking guts.
IO think we have to deport all theswe right wing American haters and those who hate our president because it’s treason and they should be jailed if not executed for treason.
While trolling, if you are particularly stupid and incapable of typing or writing a grammatical phrase, don’t leave multiple posts at the same site under different names. Your desired victims will quickly realize that the posts are from the same blabbering idiot and will stop reading after the second one.
What in the #$%% do you think the left did for 8 years and is still doing now against Bush. You are the idiot. Even your buddy hillary screamed “we can disagree with this president and still be patriotic Americans!”
The only person who has committed treason is the pres and holder.
The conservatives love this country and don’t want it to become another greece, or russia or china
We want America to be that Shiny city on the hill that Reagon talked about. We know it can.
We are not the party of free abortions early or late, or free birth control We are the party of take responsibility for yourself and for your family.
We do not belong to the government – the government belongs to us.
Now Billy Bob, et al. Take yo meds and go to bed. And stop sucking yo thumb.
What is this, commie troll heaven? If the President wins re-election, the cry is going to be: Who is John Galt”? If the small business owners of the country shut down, because we can’t survive under Obama, then the unemployment level will go to 80%. So the question is, do we want that? Maybe that’s what he wants?
Maybe we just tell our employees, correctly, that we can’t survive under President Obama. That will mean most employees go to minimum wage. After all, how hard are most of them to replace. Then we’ll eliminate any benefits packages. After all, we can’t afford them. After that, we’ll lay off until we’re profitable. If necessary, we’ll shut down to conserve capital. It happened during the ‘Great Depression.’ This may be the ‘Greater Depression.’
As I approach my 65th Birthday I am afraid that this could be the very worst time for this Country ! The very survival of this great Country is at stake- In the 236 years of the existence of the USA – we are at a crossroads – where we go from Freedom and Capitalism to slavery and communism- being led by the Worst possible Person to be President. A Man who hates the US and what it stands for – and believes that Socialism is where we should be. And he is helped by fellow Commies in The Government.. And Billy Bob – you should be led out to the nearest well and shot – you sir are an idiot and any other moron that even thinks like you. When we defeat this Criminal and his fellow dirtbags only then will the USA be safe. And oh by the way Billy Bob come to my gunfight and bring your moron buddies !
LOCK AND LOAD !
Admit it, you hate him because he is black. The incoherent babblings of the drooling illiterati are sad to see.
Lets apply Occam’s Razor: is it more likely that Obama is a Muslim Marxist Manchurian candidate determined to forever weaken the US, or an overly earnest, nerdy guy doing his best as our first black president?
The magic of the Republican establishment is how they can use covert racism and fear to motivate millions to vote against their own self interest. You’ll have to reinvent the GOP after you lose this election, since the new demographics mean that the old model is broken.
Lets apply Occam’s Razor: is it more likely that Obama is a Muslim Marxist Manchurian candidate determined to forever weaken the US, or an overly earnest, nerdy guy doing his best as our first black president?
Do we get three guesses?
Problem is Occam’s Razor is not applied when there is evidence at hand, and on the evidence I, for one, rate it about a toss-up. And frankly, there’s not much to prevent both sides from being true at the same time.
ADMIT IT, YOU LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE’S BLACK. YOU VOTED FOR HIM BECAUSE HE’S BLACK. YOU CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF HIM BECAUSE HE’S BLACK AND PLAYS LOTS OF GOLF. YOU REALLY ARE QUITE EMOTIONAL, ALMOST BORDERING ON A DRAMA QUEEN. ADMIT IT, YOU HATED JIMMY CARTER AND HIS SOUTHERN ACCENT BECAUSE HE’S WHITE. YOU LOATHED LBJ BECAUSE HE’S WHITE AND WORE COWBOY BOOTS AND CAME FROM BELOW THE MASON DIXON LINE. ADMIT IT, YOU HATED CLINTON FOR BEING WHITE WHILE TRYING TO PASS FOR BLACK AND FEEL YOUR PAIN. BUT THAT’S OK. YOU’LL GET OVER IT SOME DAY.
Master of IDIOCY:
I got this black scum smeared on the sole of my shoe; You can vote for that too. It’s got the same intellect as your idol, and even smells better. Wanna taste it?
Why do you idiots always forget his white whore mother? Hello? HALF white? Idiot.
Clinton is more lucky than smart. He owes his good fortune to two man. First Ross Perot, without him in the ballot Clinton could ever be president. Second is Newt Gingrich, Clinton has to be forever grateful to Newt for being pushed into political center. Without Republican revolution lead by Newt, Clinton would continue pursuing the same policies which got himself and country in trouble in his first two years in office. As for Clinton’s proclamation that even he wouldn’t be able fix the downturn Obama has inherited. It’s absolutely true, because he also would pursue the same Democratic/Socialist policies just like he did it with Hilarycare.
There appears to be a trend in chart no. 2 that is not discussed in the text and not mentioned in these comments. The recoveries shown have taken progressiely longer over the entire period covered, with the exception of the very mild recession of 1980. That is: The recession of 1974-76 took 18 months for job growth to recover, 1981-83 took 26 months, 1990-93 took 31 months, 2001-05 took 46 months, and now this one. The trend suggests some kind of structural problem in the economy at least since the sixties or seventies. I am not an economist and haven’t the foggiest. Does anybody know anything about this?
Very interesting observation.
You could also note that the 1990 and 2001 curves are shallower – Greenspan’s fed taking much more active steps to limit the depth, perhaps at the cost of duration. Maybe we’ve discovered some kind of tradeoff law.
… except it doesn’t seem to apply to this one, this one seems to have escaped its cage and is obeying no laws. Even if this maladministration is doing nothing or nothing good, the Bernanke’s fed has been hyperactive – and it’s hard to argue that things would have been better if left alone.
The fed has been SO active, and both TARP and Porkulus have been so huge and unprecedented, it’s hard to make the case that one man blah blah blah or even four years blah blah blah.
My take on Obambus is that he’s busy throwing gasoline on the fire and wondering why it doesn’t go out, that’s what I find false in his narrative.
Yes Bigfoot – you are right. There is a trend, and there is a growing structural problem. Is it government debt? If so it would explain why the problem has been growing over the decades and it would also expain why Obama’s curves are the worst – his deficits and therefore his borrowings were the worst. Because, like you, I am not an economist, I can only ask the question “Is it the extravagance?” I cannot answer that question.
The other factor that is often overlooked in the recovery from the Great Depression is that the savings rate went through the roof during the Second World War as rationing occurred. Because people could not buy most goods, and the goods they could buy were very expensive (those goods not under price controls), they saved most of their money. My Grandmother remembers how my Great-Grandfather was the ONLY father in her middle school that obtained a newer car (because car production basically ceased during the war) and tires, because he was a doctor, and needed transportation to attend to his patients, and also so he could serve as a medic in the trauma tents (he couldn’t do frontline services because he was too old, and 4F because of being gassed as an ambulance driver in WWI).
GOD! I Love this Site!
Even the liberal trolls are well read and articulate!!!
Amazing insight and profound realizations abound.
GREAT Article Rand and even better commentary from the members.
If the old attage “Birds of a feather” can be applied, I am honored to be in the midst!