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A Brief History Of Obama's Fiscal Record
After working hard to compile a list of Obama's rather questionable record of fiscal promises and actual executions, the gist of which is represented best by the violent clash between myth and realty in Christina Romer's "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan" whose epic failure is defined by one simple chart, we were disappointed to learn that Paul Ryan had already done this. And leaving Paul Ryan's politics aside, the facts do speak themselves. They speak even louder when one considers the din raised by the same president who back in 2006 said: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better." Indeed they do president Obama. Indeed they do. So without further ado...
A brief history of President Obama's fiscal record.
Despite newfound concern with the debt overhang stifling
economic growth, President Obama’s record falls far short of his
rhetoric. Let’s review the decisions made by President Obama and
Congressional Democrats over the past couple of years, and the
disappointing results of their policy choices:
January 20, 2009
President Obama sworn into office
-
President tells the American people in his Inaugural Address: “Those
of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account, to spend
wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day,
because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and
their government.” -
Debt Held By Public = $6.31 trillion
February 17, 2009
President Signs into Law the Spending Stimulus
-
The stimulus adds $821 billion in new spending according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
-
The White House promises this infusion of spending and borrowing
would keep unemployment rate below 8%. As millions of Americans are
painfully aware, that promise was broken. -
Debt Held by Public = $6.48 trillion
February 26, 2009
President Issues FY2010 Budget
-
The President’s budget adds $2.7 trillion in new debt in FY2010 and imposes $1.4 trillion in new taxes.
- Debt Held by Public = $6.58 trillion
March 11, 2009
President Signs FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act
-
The massive spending bill includes 8,696 earmarks at a cost of $11 billion.
-
The spending bill adds $19 billion in new spending above the baseline – an 8.6% spending increase.
-
Debt Held by Public = $6.66 trillion
April 29, 2009
Congressional Democrats Pass FY2010 Budget
-
The Congressional Democrats’ budget calls for a $2 trillion debt increase in 2010, and another 8.9% increase in non-defense discretionary spending.
-
The reconciliation process is abused to later pave the way for health care overhaul to be jammed into law.
-
Of note: this is the last time Congressional Democrats will bother budgeting.
-
Debt Held by Public = $6.85 trillion
February 2, 2010
President Issues FY2011 Budget
-
The President’s budget more than doubles
the debt; pushes the FY2011 deficit to a new record of $1.6 trillion;
drives spending to a new record of $3.8 trillion in fiscal year 2011;
and raises taxes by more than $2 trillion through 2020, under the
administration’s own estimates. -
Debt Held by Public = $7.85 trillion
March 23, 2010
President Signs Health-Care Overhaul Into Law
-
The massive new law adds $1.4 trillion in new spending over the next decade, and over $2.5 trillion once the law is fully implemented.
-
Despite sluggish economic growth and high unemployment, the law
imposes over $500 billion in new tax hikes. CBO Director Elmendorf
would later testify that the law would reduce employment by roughly half
a percent – a reduction of approximately 800,000 jobs. -
Debt Held by Public = $8.18 trillion
April 15, 2010
Congressional Democrats Decide Not to Do a Budget for FY2011
-
The 1974 Budget Act requires Congress to pass a budget each year by April 15.
-
In an unprecedented budget failure, House Democrats not only failed to pass a budget – they opted to not even propose a budget.
-
Debt Held by Public = $8.39 trillion
July 21, 2010
President Signs Financial Regulatory Overhaul Into Law
-
In addition to heightened regulatory uncertainty, the massive new law adds $10.2 billion in new spending.
-
Debt Held by Public = $8.69 trillion
February 14, 2011
President Issues FY2012 Budget
-
The President’s budget yet again calls for the doubling of the debt in five years, and tripling the debt in ten years.
-
The President’s budget spends $47 trillion over the next decade,
imposes over $1 trillion in new tax hikes, and fails to address the
drivers of the debt. -
Debt Held by Public = $9.45 trillion
April 13, 2011
President Delivers Speech on Deficit Reduction
-
The President appears
to abandon his own budget by offering a ‘framework’ that calls for
additional tax increases, defense spending cuts, and Medicare price
controls – yet lacks sufficient detail to back-up claims of deficit
reduction. -
Debt Held by Public = $9.65 trillion
April 15, 2011
House Passes FY2012 Budget Resolution
-
The House-passed budget
cuts $6.2 trillion in government spending over the next decade, saves
Medicare, strengthens the social safety net, lifts the crushing burden
of debt, and spurs economic growth and job creation. -
Senate Democrats fail to meet their legal requirement to pass a budget by April 15.
-
Debt Held by Public = $9.68 trillion
April 18, 2011
S&P Issues Credit Warning on U.S. Debt
-
The rating agency sets off the latest alarm bells, warning of lawmakers of unsustainable fiscal course.
-
President Obama has still not proposed a credible budget; Senate Democrats have still not proposed any budget.
-
Debt Held by Public = $9.68 trillion
May 13, 2011
Medicare and Social Security Trustees Issue Warning of Looming Insolvency
-
According
to the programs’ own trustees, the unsustainable future of Medicare and
Social Security threatens the health and retirement security of
America’s seniors. -
President Obama and Congressional Democrats continue to engage in
a partisan campaign to attack efforts to save and strengthen these
critical programs – while offering no serious solutions of their own. -
Debt Held by Public = $9.67 trillion
May 25, 2011
Senate Unanimously Rejects President’s FY2012 Budget; Vote is 97-0
-
While the President’s plan to accelerate our nation toward bankruptcy is unanimously rejected, the stunt on the Senate floor reveals the bankruptcy of Senate Democrats’ ideas.
-
Senate Democrats have still not proposed any budget.
-
Debt Held by Public = $9.72 trillion
June 23, 2011
CBO Director Further Discredits President’s Fiscal Record
-
In testimony before the House Budget Committee, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf responds to questions on the President’s ‘Framework’: “We don’t estimate speeches. We need much more specificity than was provided in that speech for us to do our analysis.”
-
Debt Held by Public = $9.74 trillion
July 8, 2011
Unemployment Hits 9.2%; Day 800 Since Senate Democrats Last Passed A Budget
-
A devastating jobs report that shows the unemployment rate at 9.2% coincides with the 800th day since Senate Democrats last thought the federal government needed a budget.
-
Debt Held by Public = $9.75 trillion
July 11, 2011
Senator Conrad Gives Budget Speech on Senate Floor
-
On Day 803 since the Senate last passed a budget, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad takes to the Senate floor to deliver a speech about the Senate Democrats’ non-existent budget resolution.
-
Senator Conrad makes the case for imposing over $2 trillion in new taxes, but provides no actual budget resolution and no credible details.
-
Debt held by Public = $9.75 trillion
July 15, 2011
President Holds Press Conference: “We’re Running Out of Time” to Deal with Debt
-
President Obama tells reporters: “I've
got reams of paper and printouts and spreadsheets on my desk, and so we
know how we can create a package that solves the deficits and debt for a
significant period of time. But in order to do that, we got to get
started now.” -
The American people have still not seen any “paper” or “printouts” of what specific spending cuts the President supports. The American people have still not seen any “spreadsheets” from the White House to corroborate their claims of having offered a deficit reduction plan.
-
While it’s long past time for Washington “to get started now” on
tackling our debt problems, President Obama has still not proposed a
credible budget, and Senate Democrats have still not proposed any budget. -
Debt Held by Public = $9.75 trillion
Blame the teleprompter?
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$15 trillion (or more realistically $30 trillion) of debt issued over the next decade to fund this adminsitration's decisions which would double (or more realistically triple) America's debt/GDP, has just a little more implication on markets than you may appreciate...
As for the stupidity of those ready to vote for Obama, or his "opponents", that is something we certainly have no desire to discuss. Although would be remiss if we did not ask what "other times" has Obama won anything?
Facts be damned. He's a God Lord Savior to his 0bots. At least Republicans had the sense to turn on Bush as the economy went into the shitter. These 0bots will go down with the USS 0bama.
I would like a breakdown on what decisions, programs directlly linked to Obama, and not predecessors equate to 30 billion over a decade? Not disputing the figures just the origin and content. Actually, not enough info to debate.
Learn how to spell "trillion" and maybe somebody will take you seriously. Maybe.
0bama was in the White House with large majorities in both houses of congress. He could have changed anything he wanted. Years of blaming someone else for your own actions is pathetic. Nobody forced him to increase spending. Bush gets the blame for the $750B TARP. After that, it's all 0bama.
Ever heard of the Presciption Drug Benefit?, Mr. "smarty thong". (Medicare Part D - signed into law by W.) Unfunded Liabilities from this program exceed that of Soc. Sec.
This was not Obummer - it was all Bush. Making Bush the "better" socialist.
Now pull your thong out of your butt.
That's hilarious.
There was considerble opposition to this from Republicans. Though not enough to thwart it from passing. It was a given that democrats would vote it through. It's in their DNA.
This is one of the few grand social programs that you can point to that a Republican president signed into law. Unfunded Liabilities from this program exceed that of Soc. Sec. ...not so sure. What is the difference though they are both on the way to bankruptcy. As a candidate,Obama proposed "closing the 'doughnut hole'" in his agenda, and subsequently proposed a plan to reduce costs for recipients from 100% to 50% of these expenses. So I suppose he was against it?
What can't be disputed is your boy is the biggest spending socialist on the planet. The only one even close in the last 100 yrs was FDR and he gave us the soon to be bankrupt Social Security.
Why didn't 0bama and the democrat controlled congress repeal Medicare part D if it's so horrible?
Once again, stop blaming others for his actions and inactions. now pull your head out of his ass
Couldn't Obama just have said the remaining tarp funds or even the $787bn stimulus funds, are going to be used to fund Medicare prescription drug benefit? That way he could have blamed bush for signing the entitlement into law, and blamed bush for the deficit of tarp spending, and then claimed the credited for killing 2 birds with one stone. Instead Nobel prize winner, and constitutional professor Obama, unilaterally declares war on Libya and states the constitution doesn't have to consulted.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Obama has won basically every face off he's had, beginning with the Clintons. He won the Presidency of the United States - that's not too shabby. He's won multiple legislative standoffs, including the budget standoff earlier this year. People talk about how he's clueless and out of his league, and then he outmanuevers them and gets his way. As you say, it's about to happen again.
Obama's main fiscal issues are the huge drop in revenue from the recession, the stimulus, Obamacare (which the CBO counts as actually saving money over time), not repealing any of the Bush taxes, and continuing to fight the wars. The recession, the wars, and our tax structure were all inherited issues.
I'm not pleased with Obama, due to the size of the recent deficits. And if the GOP could nominate someone who isn't a fucking hick raving about gay marraige and how default is a good idea, I might vote republican. I have in the past.
I just think that Obama Derangement Syndrome doesn't make any more sense than Bush Derangement Syndrome did. People focus on this guy as the root of all evil. It's childish.
Ron Paul is the man.
Who has achieved exactly nothing substantive. And now he's retiring. My point exactly.
More partisan bullshit. The only one "deranged" around here is you. Please wake up.
did you lose a face-off, chet?
The reason he has achieved nothing substantive is fucking morons like you keep voting for the status quo. You think by beating senile old McCain in the race after receiving $800 million in Wall St donations, 0bama has "achieved" something great. Bush Jr was elected twice. That must mean he achieved lots of substantive things. He also got his tax cut passed, created DHS and many other things during those 8 years. You must think very highly of Dubya. Look at all he's achieved and how much he won.
So far, you list your Messiah's greatest achievements as:
1. getting elected
2. getting a $1.6 trillion deficit passed
3. signing Nancy Pelosi's healthcare bill that has cause insurance premiums to skyrocket, exempting over 1,400 companies and organizations and the law won't even take effect until 2014
Thanks to Ron Paul we all now know that Bennanke the bastard gave more of his freshy printed soon to be meaningless billions of fiat money to foreign than domestic banks. Make any sense to you?
Ron Paul was setting records in campaign contributions, winning straw polls, speaking to the issues, and looking great before he was blackballed in the debates. He was kicking ass on all of the other Rep's. That is simply a fact.
Chet is like many of the trolls/zombies who comment here like they know something more than TD and his staff. It's almost like they don't read any of the massive amount of material posted here which usually explains it all quite clearly.
A couple of substantive things 0bama did were to appoint Tim Geithner as Sec of Treasury and reappoint Ben Bernanke as Fed Chair. He won again!!! Best prez ever!!!
You fucking inbred 0bots are pathetic. You think by getting a $1.6 trillion deficit passed, your Messiah "won" the budget battle.
federal revenue in 2008 = $2.524 trillion
federal revenue in 2010 = $2.381 trillion
Difference of $143 billion or 5.6%. Hardly huge. How does that account for the increase in deficits of over $1 trillion?
Your Messiah didn't inherit anything. He knew about the problems when he ran for president and he said that he would fix them. The Bush tax cuts would increase revenues by $120 billion, leaving a $1.5 trillion deficit.
BTW - I didn't know the Libya War was inherited. Keep your head up your Messiah's ass.
You're just a fucking sockpuppet
Your listing of federal revenue is meaningless without also listing expenses. And how about going back a little further than the beginning of Obama's term?
How do tax cuts increase revenue again, I forget?
You could say the same thing about Busch, though, too.
He won all kinds of legislative issues, got his SC nominees. He got us into two fuckin wars. Won against a sitting VP, then got reelected despite huge hatred and a devoted corps of people saying he was illegitimate.
@chet
jesus tapdancing christ...
I defended your ass above... Now you just sound like a moron...
I don't take back what i said above... But as of now you're on your own...
Don't be an ass. Obama has never won a real election in his life. He basically ran unopposed in every single election except the presidential one... and McCain barely counts as opposition.
Get your head out of obummer's ass and wake up to reality.
He have never actually listend to another candidate or else you would not be saying ignorant lies about gay marriage.
..another idiot you are completely. When the time comes, and the country is torn apart..dying wont be so bad if it's from shooting it out with idiots like you.
"power exists for the sake of power"---You should delete the accounts of people who junk you. It's your blog!
To say that the markets and politics aren't related is naive at best. Big government has shown that it will manipulate the markets as much as it has to or can, to maintain it's power and the status quo.
I agree with you. I made my comment below before I read yours. It's ridiculous to blame Obama for any of this mess. He walked into a situation where I think there are 400 trillion in derivatives at risk or something like that. What the fuck was he supposed to do. He could have let the whole thing crash and burn or he could make a futile attempt to save it, which he has done and it is still hanging in there. The same with Bernanke. I made a lot of money on my gold but I got to give the guy his props. He has somehow managed to keep it going for a while longer. Maybe it will crash and burn but keeping it going at least allows preparation. If it had just collapsed, we might have been in a civil war.
So what will the difference be when it does crash and we are in one?
'He has somehow managed to keep it going for a while longer'...
We now have our official 1st entry for most moronic comment of the weekend... (perhaps for all 2011)...
Concur. The douchebag should hie himself back to whence he came, most likely HuffPuff or DailyKos.
I may have only come in 24th in the junker brigade but I'm still damn proud of it.
Chet, "..still seems to win, every single time. And he's about to again."
You can tell what a 'winner' Obumma is with half his team running for the hills. You can tell what a 'success' he's been with the economy having pissed away $Trillions to "stimulate growth" when even he admitted last week the economy is "very weak" and 48% of Yanks think a Depression is 1 year away.
The only "winners" from Obummas time in office will be the elite rich and banks (parasites). They happen to be the same parasites that funded this sock puppets campaign (surprised?). Another miserable big spending (debt) socialist failure. Another vandelising freedom and wealth destroying Marxist moron. Another vacuous idealist with 'FAILURE' tattoed on his forehead for all to see. Welcome to all Govt and in particular the total failure that is socialism
Everything 0bama did was Bush's fault.
But Ah don't need to pays me mortgage or gas anymore.
Everything everybody did was George Bush's fault!
LOL...
George Bush (Senior) is George Bush's fault...
A brief history? I thought the emperor had no clothes
Obama is just showing us who's Masta debt slave bitchez!!!
I can here Obama telling Sasha and Malia: "I'm leaving a beautiful example for your generation and subsequent generations to come, you will be so...so...proud of Daddy".
Deleted.
Of course you do know that the teleprompter pic is photoshopped, or don't you...?
So Tyler, since it's safe to assume you will not vote for President Obama in 2012... perhaps you would like to share which of the GOP presidential candidates (one that actually has a chance of being nominated) you believe capable of improving the current situation?
That's easy. Other than Ron Paul (who has no chance), none of them.
+ 2012
You might want wait till TSHTF before you answer that. I think we all believe there is about to be a drastic change.
A lot of black swans can fly by and drop a load on top of you in 16 months. The world is likely to be very, very different by election day.
A lot of black swans can fly by and drop a load on top of you in 16 months. The world is likely to be very, very different by election day.
@SRV - ES339
OK... Here it comes people... The old "oh - you don't want me to come in your mouth?... well then... I guess my only other option is to dick slap you and come on your face"... argument... Is that it?
LOL...
Guess I've led a sheltered life... never heard of that old argument.
BTW, a little friendly advice... I'd dump that guy of yours fran... seems like a real dick!
Some of them might slow the bleeding, but none of them will do what it takes. 0bama doesn't deserve a second chance. Even his supporters can't point to a single good thing that he has done. All they can do is attack Bush and Cheney, who aren't running for President in 2012.
Ended wars? Nope. Started another one.
Cracked down on Wall Street? Nope. Bailed them out.
Fixed healthcare? Nope. Signed a monstrous bill, exempted thousands of organizations, and the law won't even take effect until after the 2012 elections.
Fixed medicare and social security? Nope. Made it less stable by lowering payroll taxes
Handled the BP disaster? Nope. Sent a team of DOJ lawyers instead of engineers and Coast Guard.
Fiscal responsibility? Nope. Tripled Bush's deficits.
I though it would be hard to do worse than Bush-Cheney from 2004-2008. 0bama topped them by a mile. He "won" that one.
It doesn’t matter who gets the seat, the corruption is too deep. I was there for original meetings at the formation of the EU, most of the Ministers from the European nations, in confidence, were very concerned about Germany somehow dominating the system. They were all completely terrified of Germany; you would think Hitler was still alive. When at the Whitehouse, party politics were for show. As far as the will of the American people, when we had an opportunity to remove the debt or lower taxes, we lowered taxes. It didn't matter that the boards at the Whitehouse were lite up at record capacity with Americans asking reduce the spending, don't give us tax cut. At all the DC meetings and the parties you would hear what the politicians dictate, not the real poll numbers. Everything that is touched by these parties turns perverse.
I hear talk about people with guns etc... Everyone should be empowered to stand up for themselves. You may want to think about sustainable, self reliant, Zero footprint solutions. Permafarming, aquaponics, water and air treatment. You should have an independent power source, I like thermodynamic solutions, as you can use the energy from the earth and can be set up anywhere. No need to unplug, you should blend in, build your community and your network. Condition yourself; improve your skill and knowledge. Share and empower others.
Tyler is right, Nash's Equilibrium doesn't work with crooks, tit for tat maybe. We are in the prisoner's dilemma. Whoever is the best crook wins.
If you refuse to be a crook, the only way to win is not to play. TPTB do not have a simple solution for this scenario.
All warfare is deception and misdirection. Profit and Loss.
Great comment.
+ $55,000
Don't be trapped by the 2 party system mentality. The duocracy is what got us here. Time to break the cycle.
Why do people continue to believe that voting either way will make a difference? No matter who we vote for, we'll end up with the same result.
I do not have hope, nor do I expect any change coming from our "Leadership".
Barama was lying at Inaugural Address and Mr. TOTUS was fully operational, so that would make them co conspirators...
" we were disappointed to learn that Paul Ryan had already done this."
Why, because you we're late to the party??
My God, I'm sick of the "we're more righteous than you" crowd.
Because it means that we were duplicating work.
I'm really beginning to think that it isn't Obama's basic collective leech infested ideology that motivates him to destroy America but some deep seeded hatred of, well I can't quite pin it down exactly I'm going to have to think this through a bit more...
His main supporter, Soros, also seems to have the same ill-willed vision of America. I don't think this is a coincidence.
ALL TPTB have the same ill-willed attitude towards America. It is the reason the economy has been deliberately sabotaged. You are right: It is no coincidence.
The aristocrats among TPTB want America to come back under the control of certain European families. They do not want the "shining beacon on the hill" to shine its message of individual freedom any longer -- and they have been working behind the scenes to douse this beacon since 1776. They have been continually thwarted in the past, but this time they can smell success (if they can just hold the EU together long enough!!).
The collectivists among TPTB want America totally disabled so that a Central Politburo can dictate to the world without fear that a "rogue" American president might just head off in a different direction with 320 million heavily-armed individualists. The aristocrats actively support the communist model, because they will control the Politburo.
It is imperative for the oligarchs that they finish the destruction of the American economy, individual freedoms and constitutional republic ideals ... so that the rest of the world loses any hope for a holdout against global central government.
To stop them in their tracks, all we need to do is:
End the Feds!! (Federal Reserve & Fed.gov)
End the European 'Experiment'!! (EU & EUR)
De-fund the IMF!!
=========================================
PS. Some predictions of their tactics within both American parties ... from a speech in 1958 (which, coincidentally, is the year that the KGB proposed a new strategic plan, the Shelepin Plan, of Glasnost and Perestroika--rather than Stalinist repression and aggression--to attempt a takeover of the West):
Has any one of these NOT come to pass over the last 50 years?!!
All 9 of these points are deeply disturbing. Ugh!
duh!
thx4 the update on the budget.
instead of a bal budget amendment, i wld like to propose the any budget amendment.
one prob w/ these fuktards, besides making even tyler seem trustworthy, is that in order to strike a deal 4 the new ceiling, they will give each other deep cover on all kindsa bullshit for next year.
they haven't even started to tighten the noose, yet, you know?
I propose the BUDGET Rent a truck amendment...
Back one of those mf's up there and haul EVERYONE's ass straight out of Washington...
hahaha. what if people wouldn't let you unload the truck? NIMBY! they would say. that's toxic waste!
hazmats bitchez!
Katla Volcano, Iceland!
Ron Paul Conviction Ad http://www.youtube.com/watch
money quote .... “We have drifted because we had so much prosperity, but we can’t drift forever. We can’t live on borrowed money and printed money forever "
Prosperity is a bummer.
First we have to cut the defense budget. Use this to upgrade infrastructure which does pay off. Printed money is just about gone. Raise taxes to pay down the debt.
Update from Chinese Outlet Mall, 20 minutes from downtown Beijing:
I was going to purchase a pair of tennis shoes in the Adidas outlet, but the lines of buyers at the registers were too long. I wanted to purchase a small purse at the Coach store, but the prices was 4000 RMB and the lines of buyers at the register were too long. etc...
Two days ago I was in a bank and watched as thousands of RMB were exhanged for USD litterally carried in paper sacks. Mind you these money changers, who sit in the bank lobbies, do not work for the PBOC.
The streets are awash with new Audi A8s, Porsche Cayennes, BMW sedans, etc... as if all the bikes in Beijing magically changed into 70k vehicles and the drivers all became bankers. I was told that cars are normally paid for with cash.
Is this a "beware the boom" time or just the throws of the biggest historic financial sucking sound from West to East?
This same story can be told in almost every language and every city on the planet. I think the ones that get the really long ones are smartest. You can sleep in them.
+1
Have you travelled much outside of Beijing & Shanghai? Not too many people buying Audis once you get out of the coastal cities.
Govt can't even organize an orgy ina whore house. Enough said. Start shutting down the FED and State Govts.
Obamas Budget American Monetary Armageddon
Its not going to matter one way or the other the world simply does not have enough money to finance this clown any longer it you have ever lent money to a junkie you will understand how this will play out.
First, you have to know who the junkie is.
the Shadow knows
Come on, any idiot, including Zero Hedge which I love, blames the spending on Obama hasn't got a brain in his head. Of course he increased spending. We are in the middle of a depression. He did what the experts he hired told him to do, except for the health care. Maybe he should have let the whole thing collapse to the ground. That is a valid argument. However, this country is still hanging in there, by a thread it is true. But what he did was what many, many economic experts said he should do. There are others that said he should do the opposite, the Austrian school. That's all well and good. But the guy is not an economist. He made a choice based on what his experts told him to do. That's all one can expect of someone like him. The situation was so dire he had to make these decisions even before he was sworn in. It's just a little over the top to say that Paul Ryan came up with anything of value. He's a asshole.
"Experts," lol.
So he hired the wrong experts? Who's fault is that? The tooth fairy?Why doesn't he hire some new ones who actually predicted the crash? Like all Austrians did.
Maybe he should have. But that is a problem with our system, not Obama or Bush per se. We don't elect economists. They have to rely on the experts they pick. Maybe you should have to be a governer before you can be president. They have some experience.
Oh, right; Like Sarah Palin. Yeah, I get you. That would fix everything alright.
Kinda sounds like Bush getting talked into the TARP deal, huh. I think the biggest difference between Bush and Obama is that Obama is doing this on purpose.
I think that what "dear leader" does on purpose is; a] play golf, b] drink beer, c] smoke, d] go on vacation. Aside from that, it's all just bullshit and hand waving. He's a plausible bullshit artist; or a "Jive Man".
Same as Bush was, except Bush's folksy cracker bullshit went over better with white folks.
... you forgot about the 50 IQ points
First of all, I don't think BO's IQ is fifty points higher than
George Bush but even if it is...so what. Jimmy Carter had
had one of the highest IQ's of any president, Harry Truman
probably one of the lowest. Actually, I think BO is kinda
dumb and Holder, if he was a white republican, he would
be the butt of jokes every night on Jon Stewart. And no
I don't watch Fox News. They're terrible.
Hey moron. He's the boss therefore he is responsible. If his experts that he surrounds himself with don't know what they are doing then he should fire them and get new experts.Thats what good leaders do .But he took the job and holds himself out there like he is the expert. He acts as if he's the smartest guy in the room when , no matter what room he walks into, he has the least amount of experience. He has brought nothing of value to society and the only real experience he has in life is "community organizing". In other words, rabble rousing.
Fox News appreciates your viewership.
Sorry dipshit. I don't watch faux news or any other news. I prefer to read and do my own research, form my own opinion, vs having it given to me. I don't need anybody's propaganda bullshit. So stuff it up your ass comrade.
I thought this transcript was fascinating, it’s Douglas Holtz-Eakin (CBO Director 2003-2005), providing a look behind the scenes of what is actually going on at the CBO, more of a nuanced view of the internal culture, stripped of the rabble-rousing point scoring circus of popular politics, and a honest insight into the madness of trying to balance the US budget. He covers Bush’s expanded spending, Medicare, budgetary impact of war on terror™ , Regan’s tax cuts(and why they worked, i.e. he slashed from 70% top rate down to 28%, impossible these days), the folly of being a tax hawk and a spending dove etc…its all fairly recent, febuary 2011. It’s a good read, for someone outside the US looking in, probably decent stuff for curious US citizens too.
Here’s a link
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/holtz-eakin_douglas.pdf
I find this article depressing because more of the same is coming. At these spending rates we are all gonna be 20T or more in the hole prior to election day.
Dope and change.
Pubs are pansies. Can't man up about Bush.
deleted
Hope and change, right
OK,
There’s this guy who dies, goes to he aven, and St. Pete gives
him the tour. After a while, they enter
His office, and there is a huge wall filled with clocks, some still, others
barely moving, and some going fast, and there is a name below each clock.
Curious, the guy asks St. Pete what is going on.
St. Pete says, these clocks represent a person’s life,
and whenever they lie, the clock moves, and, for instance, mother theresa’s
clock had hardly moved her whole life.”
The guy asks, “where’s Obama’s clock?”
St. Pete quickly points to the ceiling, and says, Oh, He put it on the
ceiling to use as a ceiling fan”
OK,
There’s this guy who dies, goes to he aven, and St. Pete gives
him the tour. After a while, they enter
His office, and there is a huge wall filled with clocks, some still, others
barely moving, and some going fast, and there is a name below each clock.
Curious, the guy asks St. Pete what is going on.
St. Pete says, these clocks represent a person’s life,
and whenever they lie, the clock moves, and, for instance, mother theresa’s
clock had hardly moved her whole life.”
The guy asks, “where’s Obama’s clock?”
St. Pete quickly points to the ceiling, and says, Oh, He put it on the
ceiling to use as a ceiling fan”
This may be a brief history of Obama's accomplishments, but it portends what he's capable of accomplishing if given four more years as POTUS.
i opened an account @ the morgue yest. they made me an offer i couldn't refuse. the bankster was a young (under 25) grad student. nice enough guy, very well trained to open new accts and present the morgue in the best possible light, and he would be my personal bankster, so i would never have a problem.
as we got things signed and began to wrap up, i asked him about the wamu accounts: this branch used to be a wamu, he said. so, he knew his history. i asked him whether he thought morgan/chase would have any problems like B of A was having with the stuff they got from countrywide. he had no clue what i was talking about. maybe he had been trained to do that, but, i believed him. his job was to sign me up and show me the checking and c card products on the big laminated cards. whenever he went to the probing questions (career, income, where i banked, what kind of services i used) i just deflected him.
i asked him about travellers checks in different currencies, and he knew about the bank's services. i asked him how much CAN$100 traveler's chks wld cost in USDs. he screwed around w/ his computer, said he wasn't sure, ok, but it looked like a little over $101. i figured they would buy them for that & let it drop. i'll check again next week. maybe i can get swiss francs.
so i asked him if he ever thought about gold and silver. now, he'd told me he'd made it thru undergrad w/out more than abt $20k debt, and his MBA would be $5-6 more, the way he was rolling, and when i said CPA? he nodded, yep. we talked about the QuickBooks software, and then i asked him, again, about the PMs.
he looked at me and said, yes, he like the idea of owning gold, but at these prices? i made a circle w/ my thumb & forefinger and said: a piece of metal abt this big = ~$1600. i know, he sez. he seemed interested in learning abt silver coins, too. i gave him a short spiel about the amt of silver in various old coins and what they were worth @ ~$40/0z.
he seemed interested and i told him just check out the coin shops and start seeing what's around. nice young man. i felt like the missionary to the cannibals, trying to save a young morgue bankster from the evils if a life of fiat.
prez0 might know a bit more about how things really work and go down, but probably not too much.
@slewie
Instant Classic! (story)
I have a similar one, recently... The only difference is, in the epilogue, the guy tried to get me to sign up for automatic overdraft protection...
LOL
i waived it, and he wanted me to intial two sheets on that, a copy for each of us. i initialed one for him, and refused to sign mine!
lol
Yes, you should see my signature these days, it must be the rum induced palsy...
why on earth would you give business to a bank that you already unwillingly subsidizing?
keep your friends close & your enemies closer...
i put in $100; they put in $125, checks, ATM card. i'll have their 5/9ths next week.
last time, i only got $100. they send me these little offers, all the time! it's better than the casino deals!
plus, i want to check out the currency thing via travellers' checks. diversification for the poor. it's probably not a good deal, but, if i BTFD...? LOL
jomama, if you get one of their offers, please "give them the business" too, ok?
Cool! 1 at a time :)
ya, I get that mumblin' thingie to myself all the time ;-O
it's art, N. cristo de zero?
Tyler, nice review of our national economic nightmare.
I was surprised the other day when I was reminded of Obama's quotes from the 2006 debt ceiling debate. And it turns out not a single democrat in 2006 voted to raise the debt ceiling. If Bush and GOP still had both houses right now, the main stream media would be on the other side of this, complaining bitterly and rubbing their faces in it 24/7.
The main stream media shares the blame for this mess for dumbing down America and protecting Obama like he's a crippled baby in a wheel chair.
+100
Swoosh!
Where's the fukking chart porn?
I want chart porn!
The Porn Chart says things are on the rise...
Be careful, Shelia Jackson Brown is watching.
Increase valuation of Facebook to equal to that of US total debt.
Sell Facebook to Chinese soverign wealth fund.
Use proceeds to pay off debt held by the Chinese.
Crazy.
Just one little job that will generate much employment, C format all of Facebook's storage. That way we hand em the land, but dynamite the town. China will have to make thier own.
Then facebook's bubble value will explode on Chinese communists' faces.
Then US will buy it at a firesale from Chinese for $1M.
Then donate the entire thing to some African school and call it USHIGHTECHAID worth $100M
All the smart Africans see America as land of opportunities then immigrate to America.
Then they get the "opportunity" to work on jobs even illegal aliens wouldn't do.
No Wall Street or Washington crooks in prison or on the gallows = FAIL!
You need to put Barny Frank, Chris Dodd and Maxine Waters in jail, as first movers of the crisis, first--then start on Fannie and Freddie who carried out their instructions--then it is time to go after the johnny-come-latelys (who in my opinion had little choice if they wanted to stay in business.) Gresham's law applies here too: bad lending practices drives out good ones.
Obama - Wheat bread in the blender with some grits and sauerkraut.
DOH!
And they thought he was the messiah...
Food for thought because they ignore the majority:
The DSM-IV-TR states, because it is produced for the completion of federal legislative mandates, its use by people without clinical training can lead to inappropriate application of its contents. Appropriate use of the diagnostic criteria is said to require extensive clinical training, and its contents “cannot simply be applied in a cookbook fashion”. The APA notes diagnostic labels are primarily for use as a “convenient shorthand” among professionals. The DSM advises laypersons should consult the DSM only to obtain information, not to make diagnoses, and people who may have a mental disorder should be referred to psychological counseling or treatment. Further, a shared diagnosis or label may have different causes or require different treatments; for this reason the DSM contains no information regarding treatment or cause. The range of the DSM represents an extensive scope of psychiatric and psychological issues or conditions, and it is not exclusive to what may be considered “illnesses”.
1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder: We're gonna come out of this war rich!
Yossarian: You're gonna come out rich. We're gonna come out dead.
You forgot about the couple hundred billion or so in additional stimulous obama negotiated Dec 2010 so the repubulicans could keep the bush tax cuts in place.
an interesting partisan diatribe. GWB inherited a recession, and eight years later he left office while the pillars of the economy were crumbling, and there was really no relationship between the two events, except bad economic policy. Bush presided over a giant theft of America's wealth. You can see it in the income disparity gap.
The current President is trying to close that gap, but he has run into some obfuscation on the part of Congressional Republicans and so called fiscal conservatives, who spent willingly for Bush, (they called it the Rubber Stamp Congress).
To be sure the President proposes a budget, and the reason Obama did not propose a budget is the GOP shot him down preemptively. The GOP will cry big tears about the deficit, unless they are spending the money, and widening the income gap farther if that is possible. Obama can't even get them to allow closing some tax loopholes.
the short truth is this: the GOP is responsible for 9/11. Congressional Repubs blocked Clintons secret military attack on Bin Laden in 98'. Once Bush was elected he chose to read Goat Stories instead of intelligence briefings. To compound their nearly treasonous behavior they concocted the war on Terror, and the corruption which goes with such things and handed it to the taxpayer, at the same time they were sending the taxpayers jobs to China.
Obama hasn't figured it out. If he would have put Bush and Paulson in jail, and let the TBTF banks collapse we would be living in Zanadu right now, instead we're living in a third world country. (except for that 1%)
Blame Obama because he hasn't been able to fix it yet, (and at times seems more interested in joining the 1%) but those guys trashed the hotel room on the way out, and so far no retribution. That's not right....
how can you close the income inequality gap by debasing the currency?
transfer payments do NOT reduce income equality.
Where did you study economics? at the University of Keynes?
Why is Obama scapegoating the rich? Last I checked Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison etc. founded multi billion companies that employs TENS OF THOUSANDS of highly paid people. They deserve their money. They create wealth, and contribute to the world (not through charity giving as the left defines, but through indirect means of creating employment). If we didn't tax any of those guys a SINGLE DOLLAR, the economy would STILL be better off since they create wealth. So don't say they 'don't pay their fair share'. Would you rather they take their talents to China or India? It's like how Cupertino had a sham of a 'review' / townhall of the new Apple headquarters. Can't remember the exact question but Jobs basically said, if you don't approve it we'll go elsewhere. That is the free market at work. I will say that the government should not give any of these (or any other) company any special credits, subisidies or anything similar.
The left will say that these companies don't pay their share of tax, but what about the tens of thousands of US workers who pay US income tax?
He scapegoats the rich, and those earning >$250k (no matter how hard you worked to get there legitimately), but then he'll fund bailouts to those who create no value and simply skim off the top using government coercion. Why did he bailout Pandit at Citi? why was Geithner not prosecuted for tax evasion? Why was AIG bailed out? Why did the government backstop the countrywide purchase?
And in case you're wondering, I have no respect for the right either, they like to have government welfare for corporations / military industrial companies, whereas the left prefers government welfare for individuals.
I say, no government welfare to anyone.
The whole premise of your argument is wrong. You're saying 'Obama hasn't been able to fix it yet', the whole problem is government TRYING TO FIX EVERYTHING. It's called 'central economic planning' or 'communism' (in the old days). The government should not be 'fixing' anything (this includes every president from FDR). It breaks more stuff in the process, however 'good' its intentions are.
Here's a great article:
http://www.thedailybell.com/2693/Tibor-Machan-Whats-With-Social-Security
You aren't aware of Obama's skill at saying one thing and doing another. Forget what Obama says, pay attention to what he does. I posted a likely itinerary for Obama over at "Clowns on the left.." about how he plans to sell the US government to corporate America, and privatize SSN. He is the great betrayer of America's trust.
+1 You realize you can't say what you just said without catching hell for it. I hope you are ready to defend yourself!
It is now dogma that the two parties are one and the same, and in fact that is true in the last couple of decades. However, I place most of the blame for this on Clinton who steered the Democratic party to the right in order to win his election. The republicans have always had the advantage that they march in lockstep to the same ideology--steal from the poor and give to the rich--whereas the democrats have their far left which is always at loggerheads with the center, so they only win elections because of republican overreach. The greatest legacy of Clinton is that he did realize Gore Vidal's dictum that there is only one party in America and it has two right wings.
That said, if you look at Obama's campaign promises, in retrospect he is nothing but a con-man. I'm surprised you don't see this. I remember breathing a great sigh of relief when I watched George Bush's helicopter take him away from the WH. In my heart, I was hoping it was heading straight for Guantanamo. No such luck! For a few weeks, I began to breath again, but it soon became apparent what is meant by the phrase "campaign rhetoric", and worse, I have come to see Obama as a bread and butter liar. Really quite common in the scheme of things. He did a masterful job of fooling everyone, but then that's what con-man behavior is all about and he's probably had a lifetime of practice. The guy is nothing but a narcissist and niether has the capability nor the interest in guiding this country, though he talks a good game.
Conservatives basically look backward and want things to be like the old days--the 1950's perhaps. This is nothing but a fantasy, but because even the word "conservative" implies driving in reverse by looking at your rear view mirror and only occasionally looking forward as you power on in reverse, they are hard-wired to be incapable of formulating or imagining how to emerge from the current crisis, other than by fulminating and effectively saying "harumph" (or equivalent four letter words), while lashing out at welfare queens or blacks as we see on this very thread. Since there's no way we can return to the 50's, I think a Pinochet is the only likely outcome of all of this. Not necessarily a bad thing: We need to go through just this sort of difficult, unjust, and hateful experience of the kind of persecution such a tyrant will bring, so that this fascist mode of thinking can be burned out of us by the suffering those years of dictatorship will bring. The memory of that will be so odious that we may actually emerge triumphant from that experience the way Chile has. The alternative is to continue with the bickering as we circle the drain.
you say it far better than I did. 9/11 is the root cause of the excessive spending, but it remains true that Bush signed WTO for China two weeks after 9/11, causing some to label him the Manchurian President. The bill was left there by Clinton, as you note shares the blame for 9/11 also. If he was more decisive, or he had avoided impeachment on such frivilous grounds, the secret attack on Bin Laden might have ended the entire thing before it started.