The King of Excuses
The week prior to the downgrade of US credit by S&P, President Obama and his spokesman took four separate occasions to cast blame for the poor economy on the Japanese tsunami, the Arab Spring, the “unrest” in Europe and the rise in oil prices. The lousy economy predates all of those, and his policies have made a bad economy much worse. Now that the downgrade on our credit has happened, the president sent out David Axelrod, John Kerry and the usual suspects to blame the Tea Party. They even called it the “Tea Party downgrade,” a line so cynical and dishonest it catches your breath.
The Tea Party exists to put the brakes on federal spending. It began with an anti-spending rant and gathered steam after its first public events on tax day in 2009. The Tea Party itself is a warning and a plea to cut spending. Its members worked hard and elected a freshman class in Congress and across state governments that has cutting spending as its mandate. As S&P made clear in their downgrade warning in April and in its notice on Friday, it’s the spending that is the problem. It’s the spending that has caused uncertainty over America’s capability of paying our debts. It’s the spending, stupid. Blaming the Tea Party for something they exist to oppose is childish. But we have a cynical, immature Alinksyite in the White House and in total control of the Democratic Party. Accepting responsibility for his own failures will probably never even occur to Obama or anyone around him. Responsibility is for suckers. Barack Obama has become the King of Excuses.
The problem, as I think is pretty clear, is that we cut taxes and then fought three wars, then had an economic meltdown. These are the largest factors in the current debt situation according to the CBO (the economic meltdown being the least of these, in fact). It seems reasonable, therefore, to fix this problem merely by inverting these factors: restore taxes to what they were, stop fighting wars we can’t afford, and fix our economy via job-promoting spending instead of cash giveaways to already wealthy people. Merely slashing spending, especially to the poorest sectors who are far more likely to put it back into the economy (the wealthy and corporations are more likely to sit on it in uncertain economic times), is unlikely to solve any of our problems.
huh?
Obama has created more debt in 3 years than Bush did in 8, but 3 of the 4 factors you mention happened on Bush’s watch. And the only that didn’t, Libya, is trivial from a spending perspective.
Moreover, Obama has added 1/2 trillion in spending ABOVE military, SS, and Medicare.
And on top of that, Bush’s tax policies increased tax receipts.
So no, the problem you see is not “pretty clear”, it’s pretty crazy.
The real problem is out-of-control governement, liberal governemnt. That’s not pretty clear either, it’s absolutely clear.
Wealth, unlike matter and energy, can be created and can be destroyed.
If you want wealth to grow, cut taxes.
If you want wealth to stagnate and shrink, raise taxes.
No, that is not what happened.
What blew up the economy was the housing bubble, precipitated by the Community Reinvestment Act requirements to extend mortgage lending to otherwise marginal debt risk consumers. These risky mortgages were then bundled into securities which were sold off as high grade risk financial instruments.
When these risky mortgagees could not make their payments as the rates adjusted, they could not find a market for their overpriced houses and the whole housing bubble popped.
In typical recessions, reduced economic activity causes job losses, which result in mortage forclosures. In this Great Recession, the mortgage foreclosures caused the recession and the banking crisis, because of the fraudulent financial products held by the financial industry.
It’s so easy, a housewife can explain it.
By the way, Defense Expenditures are far lower now than at the time of the Vietnam War. It is the Democrat Budgets, led by the Democrat House takeover of 2006, which have increased federal spending by 40% in the last five years.
Look it up.
Joan,
While I enjoyed reading your Vicious Pack of Facts, I must sadly inform you that they are wasted on one such as saurabh.
But keep up the good fight anyway.
Joan has hit the nail squarely on the head – and in a clear, consise, understandable form. The reader should need nothing else, but if you want verification of her conclusions, read “Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon” by Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner. They have names and numbers of all the players.
By the time you read the first 7 chapters, you will be furious with the members of the Ruling Class – politicians, unelected bureaucrats, crony capitalists, and Wall Street opportunists – and stunned that there have been virtually NO consequences to those who profited financially and politically from the actions that led to this worldwide financial disaster. Trillions of dollars of assets have been made worthless, and the cost of stopping the financial bleeding has been diverted to present and future taxpayers, while the perpetrators have scurried out of the line of fire to enjoy their ill-gotten gains. In some cases, the very contributors to the disaster have been tasked with coming up with solutions, giving them a second dip in the taxpayer trough.
Bernie Madoff had to return all the money they could get and face the punishment of the law. How have Bill Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Jim Johnson gotten off scott free? And what have we learned? I guarantee you will want answers, unless you or someone you know were part of the problem!
A cleverly written response, but it falls apart when examined more closely.
“The problem, as I think is pretty clear, is that we cut taxes and then fought three wars, then had an economic meltdown.”
Cutting taxes and fighting wars are both expansionary according the standard Keynesian theory that underpins the policy that the Obama administration uses. If the Bush administration had the extremely expansionary fiscal policy that you say it did and it still endured a recession, then fiscal policy is impotent and the Obama stimulus was a mistake. Do you really want to go there?
“restore taxes to what they were, stop fighting wars we can’t afford, and fix our economy via job-promoting spending”
Again, this makes no sense in terms of the standard Keynesian theory that underpins the policy of the Obama administration. The suggestion to fix our economy with job-promoting spending–whatever that is, though it sure sounds good–relies on standard Keynesian reasoning. But if you accept that reasoning, it makes no sense to raising taxes and cut spending on the military because both are contractionary according the Keynesian theory.
And what are those cash giveaways? You certainly cannot mean the extension of the tax cuts, because if you do, then you are implying that all the income that everyone earns belongs to the government. Not taxing it is then the same as giving it to us. But that is crazy talk.
you are willfully ignorant if you believe the president is responsible for the downgrade or even this failed economy. I have come to realize that white people go along with lies now even as they did back during the jim crow era, the mob would pull up in front of the homes of other mobsters and lie and say, HEY! THERE’S A COLORED BOY DOWN THE STREET THAT WHISTLED AT A WHITE WOMAN, and even though they knew it was a lie they would pile up in trucks and use that lie as a rallying cry to stir up the white folks to take action, so it was then, and so it is now. republicans have used race baiting far to long. They say all blacks want is handouts, eventhough many whites work in factories and plants along beside hard working black people, they run to the voting booth believing this big lie!
Dude.
Seriously?
this is kind of a parody, right?
proreason: We only wish it were a parody. I’m with eman, you & and Chris. I think this is the genuine article and not a parody. Ouch.
Hey, Vic, you do know that Jim Crow laws were enacted by democrats (and the KKK was made up of 100% Democrats.) I know libs have no use for facts, but I thought I’d throw that out there. The democrat party is the party of slavery, jim crow and the KKK, although progressive historians are doing their best to airbrush that bit of inconvenience from the Dem record.
BTW if Barack Obama is the best and the brightest black America has to offer, black people are doomed.
Way to throw the race card! Great use of the red herring!
What a marvelous demonstration of the only tactic Democrats have left!
Obama needs better trolls.
The reason this issue is attracting the trolls is that if people accept that we need to cut spending to avoid financial Armageddon, you cannot make an argument for the re-election of Obama. Obama is a spender not a budget cutter. Electing a spender seemed like a good idea during the recession of 2007-2009. (It turned out that Keynesian fiscal policy was less effective than its proponents claimed, and that may be partly because the problem was not a simple deficiency of demand.) But it is insanity to elect a spender when the budget is out of control and the credibility of our debt is in question. In a little more than a year we will learn if this country is insane or not.
“you are willfully ignorant if you believe the president is responsible for the downgrade or even this failed economy”
then i guess i’m willfully ignorant
please, oh wise and sagacious soul, explain the reasons for the downgrade and the president’s role, if any, in said downgrade…
otherwise, i call shenanigans and attempts at the only lefty defense mechanism remaining— preemptive projection
How many trillions of dollars we don’t have did the Tea Party vote to spend? How many billions of dollars in sweetheart no-bid contracts did the Tea Party pass out to its relative and business associates? How many budgets did the Tea Party fail to pass even though it was required by law?
This is a Democrat Disaster and it will not be fixed because Obama’s party has NO goal but the looting of this country.
Money is gone folks, deal with it.
Teet will be pulled, the government will pull back, and America will survive this crisis.
Times will be hard (harder then our grandfathers had in the 30s) – for everyone.
Turn to G_D, he is still there waiting for you.
He will help you find your strength, and guide your path.
But figure the dollar is cooked at this point, and prepare yourself for what follows.
It’s your only real choice…
Bryan, the alibi machine is in high gear and the Soros trolls are marching in lockstep.
They can make excuses, alibis, do the blameshifting, say they “inherited” it all…do everything but man up, the whole magic weasel parade bit…but it won’t change the fact that since the Democrats took the Congress…the economy went into a death spiral.
With EVERY new Democrat inspired plan, the economy took a nosedive.
The Senate is likely to go 1000 days without passing a budget. The President gives speeches, not concrete plans or leadership.
The plan Barack Nodrachma wanted was defeated with not a single vote in the Senate, he wanted more spending and NO cuts.
He predicted an 8% unemployment rate or less with his policies. He predicted a great turnaround in the economy…and all his advisors have wailed, failed, and bailed.
For what he has done to our economy, Bill Ayers would be proud. George Soros would be proud. Frank Marshall Davis would be proud. His socialist father would be proud. Michael Moore would be proud. Danny Davis and Carl Davidson would be proud. Van Jones would be proud. Michael Moore and Sean Penn would be proud. The Midwest Academy would be proud.
He broke the bank of America. He crashed our credit. His wild spending as Exorba the Greek depleted our treasury. But it’s not his fault. The dog ate his homework.
Hey, the Chicoms are basically saying the same stuff the Tea Party has been saying. Maybe the Poor-Excuse-in-Chief can get his mouthpieces to call them “terrorists”, eh? The jackass sure as hell doesn’t have the guts to say anything himself. Or maybe it’s just nobody can hear what he’s sayin’ when he’s bowing, eh?
Mr. Preston, your plain talk has attracted some trolls. Has the old “BC” returned as #1 or #2 above?
The competing ideas are collectivism vs. capitalism, or tax eaters vs. tax payers. All this other chatter is at best, a distraction. There is a collectivist, champion of social justice in the WH currently. Exactly who are his policies helping and who are they hurting?
The Dems control the White House and the Senate. Why is there so much whining, excuse making, and name calling? Let’s hear the solutions. What is going to work better?
Just keep sayin’ it and writin’ over and over: “The Obama Downgrade. The Obama Downgrade. The Obama Downgrade. The Obama Downgrade.” Hang around his neck like a millstone.
No, this is really bipartisan.
When the Federal Reserve prints money over the needs of the economy, it takes two years for that money to make it’s way to “inflation”.
Every year, the Federal Reserve has been “writing checks” to cover all the prior checks kited, plus that year’s extra spending, plus the increase in spending the politicians wanted.
The US government has been kiting checks using that lag time since the Korean War, give or take a bit. This stupidity had to come to an end sooner or later, the housing bubble bursting was just the triggering event, releasing the pressure already built up in the system. Had that not occurred, something else would have.
– Owe-bama to own it. Even if re-elected, it will be he loathes we and vice versa. Then he can leave his mess and head to whatever place he calls home, hoping history will change his low approval rating.
Owe-bama indeed! Hope to see the ‘correct’ spelling on many signs at campaign rallies. Or TEA party rallies.
yes chris, I do know that jim crow laws were enacted by democrats, early on , but those vicious race baiters have migrated to the republican party over the past 20 years and it has become very hard for them ,[republicans] to denounce their party supporters, racial overtures, that’s the reason black folks as a majority support democrats now. So, enough of this stupidiity! you all know that it was the obama policies that brought this country from the brink of financial calamity, and if republicans weren’t opposing everything he set out to do we wouldn’t be where we are today. Let me say this , I DON’T agree with democrats stand on abortion, gay rights’ the repeal of the defence of marriage act, gays in the military and many other policies and I refuse to support so called [republicans] christians lying.
OK victor, name some republican race baiters please. Name one. and then name a few of the racist comments. Every race baiter I can think of is a liberal democrat, e.g. Al Sharpton, Sheila Jackson Lee, Jesse Jackson, Eric Holder etc.etc.etc. MLK Jr. is hanging his head in shame. How about Farrakhan, and Van Jones and Reverend Wright and Father Pfleger and Maxine waters and marcia conyers and on and on and on. liberal democrats every one.
As for Mr Obama, the blameless, he has seen trillions of dollars pissed away in his brief (but seemingly endless) two and a half years. Pissed away on his green energy boondoggles and union giveaways, and other backdoor deals while ignoring the two wars already in progress and the ones he has stupidly started since his coronation, and strangling the private sector with regulations and his agencies and czars.
George Bush was not particularly my cup of tea; he went along with too many boneheaded liberal schemes (reaching across the aisle only ever benefits Democrats) and allowed every spending increase to go through. He and his RINO pals are culpable too. But Obama took a bad situation and made it exponentially worse with his mindless belief in Keynesian economics, and if Bush was walking towards a cliff, Obama is racing for it.
Finally Vic, knock off the racial crap. It is old and stale and says much more about you than me. I don’t know a single conservative who wouldn’t enthusiastically support a black man or woman for president. I’d draft Thomas Sowell as president if he’d take the job. I have this quaint notion of a person MERITING the office of the presidency. For your guy, I never had much hope. For a man who never accomplished a damn thing in his life except to run for office and write books about himself, his failure is hardly surprising. Anyway, enough for now. Like most liberals, if you bothered to read this, you would ignore it anyway since it doesnt fit your template. But thanks for sharing.
The huge mistake being made by the Left is that when you go into the voting booth in 2012, furious about how the last four years have been horrific for the economy, the country, and you – you can’t vote ‘against’ the TEA Party because no one runs on a platform with that title. It’s just a philosophy. But you can vote against Barack Obama.
When Obama got elected he disgracefully blamed Bush for all the evils he had inherited. If he gets re-elected, will he then start blaming himself for that which he inherited? I wouldn’t bet on it.
if obama was deliberately trying to destroy the economy what would he be doing differently than what he’s doing now?
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