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The Obama Watch
Fire Obama
And there’ll be no unemployment benefits for him.
House GOP Leader John Boehner created a stir last month when he called on President Obama to fire his top economic advisors, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Larry Summers, because of the Administration’s disastrous economic performance. But while Summers is, indeed, a clueless Keynesian, and Geithner is a career bureaucrat, they are not the source of the problem. The source of the problem is the Godfather of the Administration’s economic policies, President Obama himself.
Consequently, what is needed is not to fire Geithner or Summers, but to fire Obama. While President Obama is not on the ballot this fall, the American people will nevertheless have the opportunity in November to do precisely that, by effectively removing him from power, as explained further below. Reality will continue to punish the American people harder and harder until they do.
President Obama’s Malaise
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) officially scored the recession as starting in December, 2007. NBER also reports that since World War II, 65 years ago, the average duration of recessions has been 10 months, with the longest previously being 16 months. In April of this year, NBER issued a statement saying it could not yet determine an end to the recession, 28 months after it began.
What we do know is that in August, 2010, 32 months after the recession started, double the previous longest recession in the 65 year postwar era, the economy was still losing jobs, and unemployment was still rising. The Labor Department reported another 54,000 jobs lost in August, with unemployment rising to 9.6%. Major Obama voting blocks are being punished by Obamanomics, with African Americans suffering a sustained depression reflected by 16.3% unemployment, even worse for teenagers with unemployment at 26.3%, and Hispanics not far behind at 12% unemployment.
The total army of the unemployed remains stuck at nearly 15 million, with 42% of those classified as long-term unemployed, jobless for over 6 months, the highest since the Great Depression. The number of additional workers employed part-time for economic reasons was still rising in August, up by another 331,000 to nearly 9 million. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines these workers as those who “were working part-time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full time job.”
Another 2.4 million were defined as marginally attached to the labor force, stuck at that total for a year. The BLS explains that these individual “wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job in the prior 12 months,” but were not counted among the unemployed because they had not looked for work in the prior 4 weeks. These included 1.1 million discouraged workers, up 352,000 over the past year, who were not currently searching for work, and therefore not counted as unemployed, because they believe that in the economy of hope and change no jobs are available for them.
The army of the unemployed and underemployed consequently stands at 26.2 million Americans. That would add up to an unemployed and underemployed rate of 16.7%, almost 3 years after the recession started. The full picture of hopelessness is measured by the precipitous drop in the civilian-employment population ratio from 63% in 2007 to 58% today, fully reflecting the millions who have simply given up even trying to look for work.
Moreover, the economic growth we have experienced recently has been less than half the growth we experienced after similarly severe downturns. The economy grew by almost 7% in real terms in Reagan’s recovery in 1983 and 1984. Even under President Ford, real GDP grew by 6.2% in the year after the 1974-75 recession. But under President Obama, economic growth is again in a tailspin already, falling from 5% in the fourth quarter of 2009, to 3.7% in the first quarter this year, to 1.6% in the second quarter. Moreover, the stock market is stalled, mired 30% below its record highs over 14000 in the Dow.
This deteriorating economy couldn’t be a worse time to raise top federal tax rates across the board for every major federal tax, as will begin on Jan. 1 under President Obama’s economic policies. If those tax increases go through, the probability will be over 100% for a double dip recession, if not Art Laffer’s Coming Crash of 2011.
President Obama’s Fallacies
In his Labor Day speech before a cheering AFL-CIO crowd excited about their prospects of taking over the economy, President Obama revealed the root of the problem. He has no clue as to how the economy works, or what policies would produce economic growth. Indeed, while he may have physically been in America over the last 30 years, his mind may as well still have been in the Indonesia of his youth, for all he understands about what has happened in this country over that time.
After last year’s “stimulus” costing nearly a trillion dollars that was supposed to be focused on “shovel ready” infrastructure projects, President Obama on Monday announced his “new” economic recovery plan: another $50 billion in increased federal spending for infrastructure. He said, “I am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing America’s roads and rails and runways for the long term.” But even this simple statement of his own plan is false. For there is nothing new about it. That is what his stimulus of over a year ago was supposed to be about. But the American people are learning from hard experience that President Obama does not learn from experience. He is all theory and ideology, neo-Marxist ideology.
President Obama has made it clear over and over, including in Monday’s speech, that what he thinks drives economic growth is increased government spending, deficits, and debt. That is the sum and substance of his entire Keynesian economic theory. And he persists in that even though experience under his own Administration has proven once again that Keynesian economics doesn’t work. Indeed, that was proven so thoroughly in America in the 1970s, and again in Japan since the 1990s, that Keynesian economics today is frankly silly, and advocating still more of it now can only be accurately characterized as braindead.
Japan suffered its own financial crisis at the start of the 1990s. It responded with Keynesian government spending, deficits and debt, focused on infrastructure spending. The result has been what has been accurately called two lost decades of economic stagnation, very similar to what America is experiencing now.
About the Author
Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Senior Policy Advisor on Entitlements and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (91) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Peter Ferrara
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.8.10 @ 6:55AM
There is very little doubt that Obama is a worthless administrator and President, but the unemployed suffer as the result of policies which have been developing for 50 years and it's called big government.
It's all been said before but many of the unemployed have no skills. Their main skills have focused around accepting government assistance and their job market skills are lacking.
The public schools, controlled by the federal government, churn out students who can't read and write, and those students go on to be people who need further government assistance from housing to health care. Many groups of citizens have been on public assistance for decades and that's all they desire.
It's a complicated problem but Obama is part of the symptoms, i.e. big government in all it's forms, as opposed to individual responsibility and all the creativity it sparks.
Obama is simply the last train conductor of the Big Government Express. Although it's obvious the train can't go on, Obama with his statist view insists on throwing more federal dollars at the ultimate failed idea, big efficient government.
Central economic planning always fails and until this concept is embraced inside the beltway, nothing will get better, and many facets of the economy will continue to get worse.
Oddly enough, Obama and his legions in the U.S. Congress see how bad things are but can't get off the Keynesian express, embracing it to the bitter end.
Anthony| 9.8.10 @ 10:56AM
When Obozo is finished after one term, perhaps he and former U.N. General Secretary, Kofi Annan, can go skipping hand in hand around the world on behalf of the U.N. and its Keynesian outreach program to the rest of the world. Oh wait, that's just for Western countries, the rest of the world is into full blown Supply Side Capitalism.
Lord knows, we need the rest of the world to catch the same disease the American Left has infected America with. Perhaps Algore and Paul Krugman can tag along as bag carriers for Obozo's Secret Service contingency.
It's the only chance we have to catch up.
Jonathan M.| 9.8.10 @ 7:17PM
Obama is exactly the kind of person produced by this school system - can't hold a private sector job; has to depend on government assistance and government job handouts to make ends meat. (Typical black man).
We reap what we sow.
RCV| 9.8.10 @ 9:45PM
President Obama went to private school, you racist idiot. But you must have gone to those awful schools you complain about ("make ends meat [sic]").
Jonathan M.| 9.9.10 @ 1:51AM
Go back to Africa (or is Saudi Arabia?) you worthless ape. Faggots aren't welcome on this site. SORRY!
retmsgt| 9.10.10 @ 12:44AM
My sentiments exactly!! Except for I'm not sorry!! F' em!!!!
Marylin| 9.11.10 @ 8:28PM
What a disturbing comment to read, after reading such a brilliant article. Smarten up, racist. People don't like Obama's policies......they could care less what color he is. You, on the other hand, need a brain transplant.
re: Jonathan M. | 9.10.10 @ 12:54AM
"Go back to Africa (or is Saudi Arabia?) you worthless ape. Faggots aren't welcome on this site."
And we wonder why Liberals and The Media paint us as a bunch of imbeciles...
BigJim| 9.16.10 @ 10:59PM
To make ends MEAT???? Rump roast? (Typical bigot with public school education).
Alan Brooks| 9.8.10 @ 8:26PM
"The public schools, controlled by the federal government, churn out students who can't read and write."
in the late '90s during the Gingrich un-revolution, you could have addressed this important issue more, instead of wasting a year of time with Lewinskygate. All it did was sell papers.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.9.10 @ 8:01AM
It also impeached a President. Then Clinton was disbarred. Even with his education Clinton turned out to be a lying cheat who thought he was smarter then everyone else. He wasn't.
Concerned Conservative| 9.10.10 @ 12:56AM
Yeah, that was a total waste of time. Especially since Newt, who was having a jolly ol' time wielding the figurative pitchfork to get Clinton impeached, was also wielding his literal pitchfork into a mistress of his own.
Appleby| 9.8.10 @ 6:59AM
Obama is trapped in 1968 and he believes that there must be some way to make socialism work, although no way has yet been found -- because he WANTS it to work ought to be enough! The best we can do for the next two years is send the kid on a world tour to bother other countries, and put on a full time push to find somebody to lead our country in 2012. If we can draft someone who is already successful in business and promise him he can leave after one term, lets buckle down.
Ret. Marine| 9.8.10 @ 7:07AM
The main item you left out, and indeed most writers of today leave out of the discusion is the cloward-piven strategy. This involves not only creating unsustainable debt and spending but must in order to faithfully transform this United States into a turd-world statis, to include the keynesain economic stronghold on all things necessary to complete the assignment.
We are not a bunch of economic idiots, some of remember the days of jimmmmmeaah carter, even Regan and the economic boom that he created. The very idea of anyone thinking this clown, aka the "won" and only kenyan messiah of the little people, obama has a clue as to what not to do in order, to think he is going to pull off the biggest scam in the We the People's history, to "fundamentally transform the United States" , his words not mine, is a bigger fool than he for thinking he is going to get away with it.
The next CONgress had better consider the overall mood of the We the People crowd as a statement to our willingness to have this pretender-n-theif thrown in a jail cell where he, and most of this administration belong, as nothing short of both the moral thing to do but, it's their Constitutional duty to uphold the laws of this Nation. The list of un-Constitutional acts grows by the day. The outright theft of the American treasury by these two posers, me-chelle n' barry, the blantent payoff to the union thugs, the take-over of the auto, insurance, health and many other industries and unlawful conducts they already have completed is high crimes and misdeamors dejour. But We the People are seeing that when a one party rules, not Govern, there are many things they think they will not be held to account for, they are going to be dead wrong on their assuptions. They give a new meaning to the phrase, checks and balances, as in they refuse to obide by the Laws. They must be removed, their assets confincatred, the money placed back into the United States treasury and must stand trial for their treason. Other wise my fellow Americans, we are headed for a cleansing to the likes of the Civil War. The Capitalist against the teet suckers, i.e. the demonrat party and their supporters. Pick a side and let's just get this over with already. I'm not getting any younger, and am watching my fellow Patriots suffering needlessly.
Stephanie| 9.8.10 @ 12:09PM
Ret. Marine, I'm with you. I fear though that the repubs won't do a damn thing, especially impeach the "won" and run him and
Mooch-elle out of our White House.
They, the repubs, are a part of the problem and new and younger blood needs to be elected into congress. I have picked my side and am ready to get this over with. We are all suffering needlessly, to quote you, sir.
Patrick| 9.8.10 @ 3:08PM
Oh no! Heaven forbid we impeach!
Do not make this man a martyr!
Rather, let him be a byword for the liberal cause, a reproach for generations to remember. Let his madness expose itself, and all who cling to it for what they truly are.
If he is removed, America will quickly forget its disgust for central planning and cheap gimmicks.
No, let him stay, and butt heads with his intellectual betters, ever looking as the inept fool that he is. It may press hard against this nation, but the hard lessons must be learned.
Fredrick Ward| 9.9.10 @ 1:41AM
Patrick,
While I wish that such a lesson would stick I know well that it will still easily be forgotten by the mass of the American people. This will be accomplished by the mass media repressing the facts that Obama is such a traitor to his own oath, our constitution, and his own faith that he claims to be a member of yet doesn't practice at all.
Everyone said the same thing about the great terrors that have passed in history. Now it is believed by many that the Holocaust never happened, and such an idea is even raised within public schools. These traitors will rewrite history upon the malleable minds of the masses by just simple switch and bait.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.8.10 @ 7:12AM
By the way, your headline is slightly misleading when it states that "Fire Obama, and there will be no unemployment benefits for him."
In fact former Presidents get Secret Service protection for life in some cases, and for a 10 year limit starting with Clinton, although it can be extended and I'm sure it was extended.
They also get a pension of 191, 300 for life. Even Richard Nixon got it because he resigned. If they are impeached there is no pension.
In 2008 almost 6 million was appropriated for Secret Service protection and office costs for former Presidents. Then there are transition costs. Over 7,000,000 was appropriated for that in 2008.
You can fire a President but you can't fire his pension. Unless he's impeached of course.
According to this article at the National Taxpayer's Union, Clinton has already collected 1.4 million since leaving office and could collect 5 million in his lifetime. Almost all former Presidents will collect between 5 to 7 million in pension benefits.
This is just another part of the merry-go-round of public service inside Washington with a gold plated chair on which to sit.
http://www.ntu.org/news-and-is.....youts.html
Nunya| 9.8.10 @ 5:22PM
Same goes withall Senators and Congressmen elected more than once. This den of vipers voted themselves their salary for life after office. They truly think of themselves as the ruling class, we are all just their indentured servants.
Curly Smith| 9.8.10 @ 7:51AM
No unemployment benefits for Obama? Hardly, he'll spend the rest of his life as the next generation race demagogue. The only reason that the economy isn't booming is that the bitter-clinger-racists are intentionally destroying His Presidency. Get ready for 30 years of "I stood for a post-racial America and *they* said NO". After watching his performance in office I think race demagogue is the job he was looking for in 2008 - he knew he wouldn't win because the hateful, racist country wouldn't elect an intellectually superior black man. Then the dang racists tricked him and forced him to be President. *They* put him in a position of power and then undercut his every decision. *They* made him look weak, indecisive and incompetent. In the years to come it will be known as a "political lynching".
TennesseeVolunteer| 9.8.10 @ 8:02AM
Curly, the Constitution promise you Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness! Not a cell phone, maxed out cable TV packages, Free breakfast and lunches for schoolchildren( and now we have an obesity problem), the ability to have as many children as you want with only one parent and all of the rest of the giveaways by the libs that have absolutely ruined many of our fellow citizens who are not conscious enough to realize what a road to destruction government giveaways are. All so the Dems, Socialists and Communists can stay in office forever, pay off their friends and try to ruin the best country God (that's right, you heard me...God!) ever put on this earth.
Can you spell Tea Party?
Mimi| 9.8.10 @ 5:16PM
" They made him look weak, indecisive and incompetent. In the years to come it will be known as a 'Political -lynching'. Quote by Curly!
ALL THIS WILL BE RECORDED AS SELF-INFLICTED......President Barrack Obama had a 70% approval rating on inauguration day. He now has a 70% disapproval rating on many policies. Why???....Liberal-Left agenda....Choosing to work on Health-Care over economy/jobs..(party over people)....Destroying all the trust of the people, by saying one thing and doing another.....Straying so far from the Constitution in his BOLD quest for a Socialist-America.....Everything he says and does comes off as Un-American. Heh Curly.... he's not doing good by us!!!
Nunya| 9.8.10 @ 5:26PM
We can only hope.
Unfortunately, the American people have a very short memory--how else could the Demonrats parade Jimmy Carter around the world as a successful President? The man was the worst president of the 20th Century, only now superceded in incompentence by the current office holder. In 20 years they'll be saying the Obozo was actually competent, and he'll be parading around the world on our dime.
Louis Jenkins| 9.8.10 @ 8:27AM
"...African Americans suffering a sustained depression reflected by 16.3% unemployment, even worse for teenagers with unemployment at 26.3%, and Hispanics not far behind at 12% unemployment."
Wait, stop the presses! These are the same people who voted for the Won! Assuming they want to work, but then again, as mentioned above, the only skill they have is placing their hands out for the reward of doing nothing. So instead of putting them down as unemployed maybe Ferrara should have listed them as on the gravy train. After all, the administration has extended unemployment benefits (again). You see it all depends on how you look at things. Can't wait until Nov. Maybe we can "clean house" to use Pelosi's terms.
Stephanie| 9.8.10 @ 12:13PM
And "drain the swamp"?
Grandpa| 9.8.10 @ 9:10AM
"the probability will be over 100% for a double dip recession..." I'm not questioning the article, but it's impossible to have a probability greater than 100%.
SpiralArchitect| 9.8.10 @ 4:07PM
Back to Sleep, Grandpa.
Joh Kenneth Kuznitz| 9.8.10 @ 9:47AM
I have a semi-professional background in economics. It wasn't till about 40 years ago that mainstream US economists realized that Keynesianism just doesn't work. It will take a while for the rest to catch up.People accept Obama's piffle who haven't hear of Keynes. It will take another generation if we survive.
Anthony| 9.8.10 @ 9:57AM
Our Ivy League quasi Muslim Marxist wonderkind is out there chasing down those nasty millionaires that are stopping Americans from opening up businesses and hiring more employees.
Obozo could have learned this crap at the local community college and saved hundreds of thousands. Oh wait, he didn't pay a dime for his Ivy League bona fides. My bad.
This pathetic loser's vitriolic message to the union goons, with his tiresome class warfare and his touchy ego, "they talk about me as if I was a dog", is really as low rent an act America has EVER seen from any of our previous presidents.
If we don't change the course of things this November, this country is truly headed for the dogs.
Fredrick Ward| 9.9.10 @ 2:17AM
Unfortunately, it will take nearly twenty-five years to fix this monumental mistake of people voting primarily due to a candidate's skin tone instead of actually voting for the best person for the job. If anyone has forgotten there were comedians, and many other people who said that the black community should vote for Obama because he is black, and crowds cheered at the notion. Also, if anyone forgets there was actual news footage of black people stating that they had already voted three times, and was back in line again to vote for Obama yet again. If anyone has forgotten there were numerous reports of people standing at the voting polls intimidating people who were not voting for Obama and told them they couldn't vote if they were not voting Obama.
Some very interesting videos if anyone has forgotten.
Obama supporters do not even know what he stands for
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Voting for the Nanny state
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
davelnaf| 9.8.10 @ 10:07AM
One hopes that voters this November reduce Obama’s opportunity to do further harm to the economy and to the country. The mere thought that millions might still not understand the urgency for this can really ruin one’s day. But what kind of person doubts that Obama and the dems in Congress are the most incompetent leadership team ever? A measure of this team’s awfulness (and a measure of how bad it is for the Democrats) can be found in the left’s vigorous trashing of the ever growing opposition to Obama. This stuff has gotten pretty ugly, but the desperation motivating it is sweet indeed.
Steve A| 9.8.10 @ 10:49AM
You just know that after BO gets crushed in 2012 the dude is not going away. He flat out has no class. Just look at Clinton & Carter as examples of x-presidents who simply will not shut up. At least the Bushes know when it's over.
Jobe| 9.8.10 @ 11:28AM
Has there ever been a less presidential president? Even Clinton could stick out that lip and assume a solemn tone when he absolutely had to. This jughead makes me sick to my stomach. He is everything I learned to avoid as i grew up. A lying, cheating, lazy, foolish jerkwad with a superiority complex and no bona fides to back it up.
scotchieguy| 9.8.10 @ 12:07PM
"cling to guns and religion," "what a jack-ass!" "...police acted stupidly," "...keep our boots on the throat of BP," "they think I am a dog." What world do we live in? This guy is actually president? Wake me up from this bad dream.
Concerned Conservative | 9.10.10 @ 1:01AM
I know. And all the liberals around me are still constantly saying, "Obama is so cool, so collected, so measured, so thoughtful, so eloquent. He never stick his foot in his mouth". To which I respond, "Really? You still buy into that myth?"
When is he NOT sticking his foot in mouth? The guy is as thoroughly un-Presidential as you could imagine.
Ray| 9.8.10 @ 11:36AM
I have an answer to the Keynesian economic policies and practice favored by Obama and his compatriots in Congress: The Federal Salaried Employees Matching Funds Initiative. This means that every one percent increase in federal spending (beyond adjustments for inflation) will be matched by a one percent reduction in federal salaries. Every Congressman, every President, every Department appointee, every federal employee (excluding members of the military), who receive federal salaries will see a one percent decrease in their pay for every one percent increase in government spending. Under this policy, I guarantee you that federal spending would never increase again, thus destroying Keynesian theory and, most importantly, practice once and for all.
Ed| 9.8.10 @ 11:41AM
Firing Obama?
That would be a change we could all believe in!
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 11:41AM
What I really will never understand is how the Democrat Party even still exists, much less has a stranglehold on Federal Power. President Bozo still polls in the 40's, when his "performance" warrants polling in the teens, if that! The entire Democrat Party is organized to take money from people and spend it buying votes, and this is plain for all to see. Yet it continues. November may bring about a power shift, but will things really change? The American People voted for this crap, and those of us who knew better must suffer along with the pack. The real problem is the American voters. What they THINK is not what IS. They vote Democrat as a default setting, requiring a manual override to vote otherwise. In other words, voters will only vote against Democrats when they absolutely have to, and frequently not even then. The voters have been bought with taxpayer money and wealth redistribution. The numbers tell the story. Too many people get a net subsidy from the government and it is a bit much to ask them to vote against their own gravy train. OK, so the polls say the Republicans will take Congress. Whoopee. The GOP is fighting AGAINST every actual conservative candidate it can find and reinforcing its committment to its own Party flacks, you know, those bootlickers who voted FOR Bozo's failures. President Bozo is the most collosal presidential failure in the last 100 years, but he fancies himself a great success. And in his small mind he is! He is surrounded by cheering throngs who feed his ego. THIS is the measure of his success, not jobs created or lost. President Bozo is a hollow man, a self worshipping fool who surrounds himself with a cult of sycophants and it is by this scale that he measures his success.
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 11:55AM
One more measure of President Bozo's "success" is his appointment and the Senate's confirmation of TWO Supreme Court Justices, Sotomayor and Kagan. These two persons have absolutely no business being anywhere near the Supreme Court, much less sitting on the bench. But they absolutely will toe the Democrat Party/Socialist line. They will vote to nullify our Constitutional rights. The will vote to expand and legitimize the usurpations of Congress and the Presidency. They will legislate from the bench and override the votes of the people. You bet Bozo sees his administration as a great success! It is now up to the voters to educate him as to the errors of his ways. Will the people do it? We shall see.
Nunya| 9.8.10 @ 5:57PM
Albert,
Your post makes me remember the following quote, attributed to Scottish economist Alexander Tyler, in 1770:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to Complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
The saddest part of his statement is that this nation was never intended to be a Democracy, but a representative Republic. There are distinct differences between them that are no longer taught in our schools, and the Progressives have worked hard to ensure that all of our children believe we are a democracy. It's by design, and it's working.
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 6:51PM
Everything you have said is 100% true. This is not legally a democracy. The Greeks experimented with democracy about 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. They gave it up because it was effectively "mob rule." I would like to say that we still have not learned that lesson, but the politicians have learned it very well. The problem is, politicians do not have the same goals as we do. Politicians WANT disruption, economic malaise, depression, crime, violence. It gives them the "crises" they need to claim ever more power. Truth be told, if the US Government actually OBEYED the US Constitution, all the federal largesse would be recognized as flatly illegal. But we elect politicians and politicians are concerned only with themselves. The biggest joke in politics is the claim that businessmen are labeled "greedy" by politicians. It is in truth the politicians who are greedy. A businessman makes his own living and profits, and provides jobs in the process. And he does not claim divine status for doing it. But politicians take what others have earned and give it to those who have not earned it and thereby gain the votes of the non-earners. They then fancy themselves "charitable" and "sacrificing" while decrying the "greed" of the taxpayer. The politicians are the greedy ones,because their high-living lifestyle would be impossible but for the labors of OTHERS!!! A wise old man once said that the only way to look at a politician is DOWN. A politician is beneath a wage earner, beneath a businessman, beneath a taxpayer, beneath those who earn interest and dividends on their investments. A politician is truly the lowest form of human life and we should NEVER look up to such people.
Sarbo| 9.8.10 @ 11:44AM
What are these Blue Dog Democrats, anyway? Using the lingo of international geoplitics, they are those who run with the hare and hunt with the hound.
Nate| 9.8.10 @ 12:40PM
So .... You've noticed we're having a long recession.
Well, that's a start. It is indeed a very long, very deep recession.
Very good.
It's also a recession intensified by a financial crisis that was staggering in scope.
The financial crisis was caused by decades of deregulation and wage stagnation.
Obama is doing about as much as a president can do. He would LOVE an increase in employment. The idea that he's enjoying the recession is RETARDED.
The truth is there's not much the government can do except try to stimulate DEMAND. The Republicans will not allow the government to do any more such stimulation, so we're going to muddle through as best we can.
It's going to be a LONG SLOG, again, not because of Obama but because people aren't SPENDING.
Unemployment will only come down when DEMAND INCREASES.
Supply-side economics won't help us. Indeed such thinking is how we got into this mess in the first place.
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 1:09PM
This is the stupidest post I have seen in some time. Government can not stimulate anything! Government TAKES money from people thus PREVENTING them from spending. This recession, and likewise the Great Depression, was CAUSED by government. Too much regulation. Too high taxes. Too much government "stimulus" and market subsidies like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The idea that government can "stimulate" demand is ludicrous. Supply side economics led the USA to the largest and longest economic expansion in world history, an expansion that still props up the socialist lunacy of the Democrats and carried Bill Clinton through 2 terms. I suggest you take a course in basic economics and get a clue.
Dagny Taggert| 9.8.10 @ 2:24PM
You're an idiot. How, exactly did decades of deregulation cause the financial crisis? I could make the argument that the heavy hand of the govt (penalizing banks through CRA, fanny & freddie relying on the "implied backing of the govt" making insane mortgage guarantees on a balance sheet that was over-levered to the hilt) and its' regulation were the cause of the problem. Wage stagnation? Wages are a function of productivity--period.
"Deregulation" whining from economically brain-dead lefties drives me crazy. How's your airline ticket pricing since deregulation? How's your brokerage trading fees since deregulation?
Nate can you comprehend that when a good or service gets delivered at a lower price, those savings are what ultimately creates jobs? That aggregate surplus we collectively create with a market mechanism is what creates jobs. When you tax and spend, you create NOTHING--the incredibly inefficient system we ring the money through (bureaucrats, politicians, unions) KILLS any chance we had to increase demand by spending . Especially since we spend a dollar today, and pay it back over multiple years.
Ret. Marine| 9.8.10 @ 2:43PM
NOTE! IDIOT ALERT, the bell has rung.
Tim*| 9.8.10 @ 3:45PM
Independent Voters Are Falling Off The Obama Keynesian Sled .
Realclearpolitics Obama Job Approval Polls :
RCP Average 8/25 - 9/7 -- 45.9% Approve 49.7% Disapprove -3.8 % Approval Rating
dw| 9.8.10 @ 4:27PM
Your grasp of economics is as moronic as that of your God, obama. You people are just plain stupid and debate with you and your ilk is like trying to convince a typical 14th century scientist that the world is round.
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 7:00PM
I understand your frustration and I agree with you 100%. It is just that you give a bad name to 14th century scientists with your analogy. Even in ancient times, educated people knew that the world was a globe. There are Fourth Century statuary of Roman emperors that show clearly the "orb", a small ball held in the upturned palm. This is an ancient symbol of power over the entire world ("He's got the whole world, in his hands!") But then that was the problem even at that time. Ancient Romans thought they held sway over the entire world! And they were unabashed at bragging about it. Tell me the functional difference between a corrupt, self-interested Roman Senator, and Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama, or Harry Reid, or... :-)
Curtis Rasmussen| 9.8.10 @ 5:22PM
Every post that pukes from the diseased brain of Nate is more incoherent than the last.
Nate, prepare for the rude awakening in November. Your hero Obama will be neutered, hopefully along with his socialist Keynesian and Obama'scare programs as well.
Sometimes, I wonder if this girl Nate reads the stories at all. By her comments I doubt it.
Nunya| 9.8.10 @ 6:13PM
Nate, you and your hero Obozo have obviously never studied basic economics, your statements above prove that. Frankly, my favorite is: "The truth is there's not much the government can do except try to stimulate DEMAND." :-) A close second would be: "The financial crisis was caused by decades of deregulation and wage stagnation", which is patently ridiculous on its face and not worthy of further comment.
So here's my nutshell Economics 101 lesson for you: Governments cannot create long-term demand, they can only stifle it or stimulate it through taxation. Since everyone has a finite amount of money (including businesses and "the rich", by the way), higher taxes result in less money for the people to spend. This results in less demand (also called "money to buy things"), which results in less production, fewer jobs, etc., etc.
If Obozo knew just that much of the study of Economics, we'd all be better off. Instead, he's hell-bent to raise taxes and other costs. Until we replace the current idiot-in-chief with someone who understands these things, our economy will continue down this path.
Here endeth the lesson. :-)
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 7:03PM
Good lesson! I could not have done better myself. I probably could not have done as well. But then, while I understand basic economics, my major was in History. :-)
The One We've Been Waiting For| 9.8.10 @ 8:08PM
We're buying shrimp, Nate. This is better but you could still do better. The "it would be far worse if it wasn't for me" defense will not cut it. We must convince them that this is the summer of recovery. Things are great. Happy days are here again. More stimulus for my friends. You can do it. This is why we hired you Nate. You are dumb enough to believe it yourself. You are authentic. Come on, get out there and sell. Americans need to believe they can act like Greeks but be rewarded like a functional economy. Why should we have 70% unemployment? We are Americans; that is why. Keep up the good work Nate. You are one of the most productive trolls on this site. Lately though you have turned into a hit and run guy. It is probably that Greek thing. I am playing golf tomorrow and I am pumped. We are going to end income tax for seniors making less than $50,000 baby. I never tire, well you know.
TR| 9.9.10 @ 12:26AM
Your post, Mr. Nate, appears to be writen by the most uninformed, head up your a$$ that I have read in a long long time. Almost EVERY statement you make is not just laughably wrong and completely twisted, I have to wonder if you are a Jr High School student or just mentally damaged.
Decades od deregulation?? Jeezusss, we are so over regulated that productivity is stifled immensely. Instead of being able to make a living, you must constantly check and recheck what idiotic control-freak reg the Govt. has created.
Wage stagnation?? Were you born yesterday? Wages have risen dramatically over the past three decades. I made $1.30 an hour on my first job in 1970. I make over $100000 per annum today. That is quite a stagnation, you mathmatically challenged moron.
Obama is a dedicated marxist and has surrounded himself with marxists HIS ENTIRE ADULT LIFE. He DOES NOT want improvement, it would stall lhis movement to "fundamentally transform America" into the socialist/marxist idea he has.
THE GOVT DOES NOT STIMULATE DEMAND, IT TAKES FROM THE HARD WORKING POPULACE AND DISTRIBUTES IT TO FAVORED POLITICAL CLASSES.
You are a shill. You cannot possibly be real. Either that, or you were dropped on your pinhead wayyyyy too many times as a baby, and you have no grasp of reality.
Economics are cyclical, always have been, always will. Govt interference stalls improvement.
Go back to school lyou absolute idiot.
TR| 9.9.10 @ 12:33AM
Oh, Nateass, one more thing.
Government regulation has forced affirmative action (a fuzzy term that means race-based preference) to the point the we now have an AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PRESIDENT. This dangerous man is so clearly an affirmative action president. He has absolutely no qualifications, he has absolutely no communication abilities outside of a prepared teleprompter, he has a hidden past, HE WAS ELECTED BECAUSE OF HIS SKIN HUE, NO BY ANY QUALITIES.
retmsgt| 9.10.10 @ 12:57AM
Nate - you are beautiful!! and an absolute liberal, lefty, progressive thinking moron. I love ya!! needed a good laugh. which Target do you work at?
ABNCP| 9.8.10 @ 1:17PM
After our temporary President gets retired in 2012, he can take a job that he is actually qualified for. He will make a great late night talk show host. He has the oily smile, the self admiration, the false sense of omniptence and the annoying phoney salesmenship of a T.V. commercial. So in 2013, be afraid Dave be very afraid.
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 8:26PM
A job President Bozo is actually qualified for! That truly is a challenge. I would suggest cleaning toilets, but I am not sure he can competently complete such a task, nor have I seen any evidence that he has actual training for such employment. But then, this is a "job Americans won't do" and since it has not been proven that Bozo is an "American", perhaps he is more qualified for this than we think.
Mojo Risin| 9.8.10 @ 2:26PM
There needs to be an "Economic Constitution" that cannot be abridged, a document that has the authority to keep the economy on track and not allow veering-off in some disastrous, tangential direction that has the country sliding off a shale covered incline towards a cliff, aka: Marxist/socialist gulch.
This document will need to be abided by, unlike our original founding document, that's recently been ignored, the "Economic Constitution" will impose penalties on offending officials, that involve exile to islands and confinement. I can't wait, lets get this going!!!
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 8:30PM
I like your idea, but frankly, anything that "cannot be abridged" will immediately be so abridged, or more accurately, changed into something unrecognizable under Law. The bottom line is we get the government we ELECT!!! If Americans stop voting for goons, we will have fewer goons in Congress. How hard is this to understand?
Oldefarte| 9.8.10 @ 3:14PM
I agree with Peter's conclusion about diluting Obama's effectiveness as president, but he can unfortionately do substantial damage until November of 2012. As I previously stated, Americans ACTED STUPIDLY by electing him in Nobember of 2008, but that, as they say, is milk spilled from its bottle which cannot be recontained. Hopefully, Americans have learned their hard lession from their serious mistake, and will nver make the same one ever again. A vote for the presidency is extremely serious, and to vote due to only the candidates skin color is ultra-stupid. This nation's guilt over slavery resulted in a now disasterous decision by its citizen-voters, and we somehow have to live with our MISTAKE!!!!
dw| 9.8.10 @ 4:39PM
It is particularly frustrating for someone like myself who saw this egomaniac for what he is and did not vote for him and tried to warn all I could as to what this socialist was going to do.
He has done everything I predicted he would do with the exact effects that I foresaw. But I keep harking back to all the dimwits I talked to who just did not and would not get it. So many people literally had their heads up their you know whats.
It really helped continue my already lowering view of peoples overall intelligence and now we are paying for that stupidity.
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 8:36PM
Many of us saw this Bozo coming down the pike. And we tried to tell anyone who would listen. But few would. So, we have Bozo the Clown for President. But as legally "president", Bozo can do great harm. He could use his power of pardon and amnesty to legalize ADMINISTRATIVELY millions of illegal aliens as DEMOCRAT voters. And if he is desperate, he may actually do so. People who act in desperation sometimes achieve what they are desperate to achieve. Acts of desperation do not always fail. The 1996 presidential election proved that.
Oldefarte| 9.9.10 @ 1:10PM
In addition to DW's and Albert's [above] foresight, I too knew and wrote [a letter to the editor] documenting my astonishment [pre 11/08] at Obama's impending election; but as all three of us have stated, it simply was useless, as Obama became president. I do however think/believe that these upcoming November elections and/will bring about partial change/relief from his domestic/political terrorism. I the new group of incoming Republicans have the political guts/courage needed to do the necessary, they can put the brakes on his subversion activities sufficiently until November 2012 arrives, whereupon he can then be defeated. As they say, ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY, and the needed corrections to the present disasters will take time [but it can none the less be accompolished]!!!!
dw| 9.9.10 @ 1:36PM
These Nov. elections do represent are only hope of any relief. The obamanator is going to continue his stupidity as evidenced by his recently revealed strategy to continue more wasted government spending and his refusal to cancel the tax increase on the "wealthy", many of whom are small business owners who would normally play a significant role in the activity of putting people back to work. But no, the 'academic in chief' must insist that his collectivist economic theory is correct come hell or high water.
So why america drowns in his flood, and as he preaches to his union robots, even Castro now admits that communism does not work.
Obama is not a leader of our nation, he is a leader of only the segments he can carve out to oppose capitalism and support his mutated world outlook.
dw| 9.9.10 @ 1:55PM
Questions; How many people had to suffer and die in order for Castro to conclude that communism does not work? (it was countless millions in the former Soviet Union)
Why can't seemingly intelligent people ,presumably like the obamanator, understand the failure of communism through academic study before they try to ruin peoples lives with its actual implementation?
The practical failure of it does not have to rely on theoritical study as there are many real life field study examples, like the Soviet Union and Cuba and many others. So just how smart can these people really be?
My conclusion is that their reputation for cognitive ability is built by them and believed by the followers they create.
Oldefarte| 9.11.10 @ 2:50PM
DW [and everybody here], Even though it doesn't primarily describe the USSR's economic conditions and is mostly devoted to their imprisonment of citizens; I'd highly recommend reading THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO by Solzhenitsyn as a excellent example of communism!!!!!
Tim*| 9.8.10 @ 3:54PM
University of Maryland Professor Pete Morici says that Obama has "blown it" for not fixing the economy faster. "He and his team used the recession as an excuse to make permanent increases in government spending under the guise of stimulus that don't do a lot to stimulate the economy,"
Louis Jenkins| 9.8.10 @ 5:08PM
More salt on the wounds: B. Boxers economic guru has been busted for possession, trying to sneak a bag of pot into the secure office bldg. I knew they were smoking something.
Michele San Pietro| 9.8.10 @ 5:46PM
Disastrous Obama must be fired before it is too late.
Albert| 9.8.10 @ 7:04PM
Agreed. But it may already be too late. Let us pray it isn't. :-)
Jim O'Brien| 9.8.10 @ 8:51PM
A couple of days ago Obama said he will increase taxes on high earners in order to fund tax breaks for small businesses. He's so clueless that he doesn't realize the high earners and the business owners are the same people! Obama - the effete, elite, book-smart dunce with zero business experience.
Yosemeti Sam| 9.9.10 @ 1:44AM
BHO - you invited it and now you gonna get it!
The 'clingers' - have morphed into a UNITED front!
Your power base of Democrats - including the basest of unions - will welcome Alpo come November!
Cling to THAT - chump!
LOL.
WAKE UP| 9.9.10 @ 1:45AM
What a sad little man Obama is.
One that Is...| 9.9.10 @ 10:18AM
Let's face it - we FINALLY have a black man in the white house beggin for change.
America - what a country...
Blackwatch| 9.9.10 @ 3:51PM
Why the racist content to your posting? It is unwanted here. He is half white and half black. get on with your life.
So were you trolling for affirmation or are you merely a Soros troll doing evil?
Becky| 9.9.10 @ 9:34PM
This man has done so much damage to this country; and I am of the belief it is intentional. No one can be this stupid. I saw today we are actually taking polls on whether our own flag should be banned. I say what are we thinking, by letting this happen? This man should be impeached right away. His pension should be withheld, along with all his little evil helpers. It is called impeachment for dereliction of duty. We cannot have an enemy occupy our own White House. What has he done that is good for this country? Nothing. The anointed one has sold America down the River of Socialism, and it is going to be hard to stem the flow. We can do it, but we need some strong conservative Americans willing to take on this mess. Pelosi needs to go back to California preferably, (before it falls off into the ocean.) Obama and Queen Michelle should find some Muslim country to live in; go change that country's history and leave ours alone. I have never seen Americans so angry. I have lived through eleven presidents and never seen one make more of a mess than this one has. Socialism doesn't work, Communism doesn't work... Obamism doesn't work and never will..Radical, he is a radical. AND YES, go work like you have never worked before to get these people out of office...starting in November.
Concerned Conservative | 9.10.10 @ 12:52AM
Yes, we will take back Congress in November and perhaps the Senate in the not so distant future. But who do we have to bring us assured victory in 2012?
Right now it's slim pickins', as far as I'm concerned.
paul| 9.12.10 @ 2:02PM
interesting reading all the responses. there's a lot of hate on here; i realize people have strong opinions and are entitled to believe what they want, and open themselves for rebuttal when they post. good article, i mostly agree with it.
Ken Roberts | 9.12.10 @ 9:29PM
Oh please Lord deliver me from any more democrat tax cuts ,the last one I got cost me 1,700 .00 that year .and the year after and after .
Ken Roberts | 9.12.10 @ 9:33PM
Can we impeach him for being insane as when someone does something over and over looking for a different out come they are usually insane .
jackc| 4.19.11 @ 5:40PM
Obama: The messiah of the destruction of America
Obama's tenet: Punish success, promote laziness, failure and the social compact (socialism)
Obama's legacy: Change America to a nation of poverty - America's credit rating drops
Fire Obama
Hire Trumph
Recover America from the growing epidemic of poverty.
jackc| 4.21.11 @ 12:20PM
Air-traffic controllers asleep
Government agencies asleep
Obama and his cohorts asleep for 2 years - continue to sleep!!
Wake up America
Fire Obama
Hire Trumph
For effective CHANGE
Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 6:23AM
Consequently, what is needed is not to fire Geithner or Summers, but to fire Obama. While President Obama is not on the ballot this fall, the American people will nevertheless have the opportunity in November to do precisely that, by effectively removing him from power, as explained further below.
weddingdress | 7.7.11 @ 5:28AM
please Lord deliver me from any more democrat tax cuts ,the last one I got cost me 1,700 .00 that year .and the year after and after .
Alvin Smith| 7.30.11 @ 4:19PM
I am a veteran of vietnam & Korea 12 years, and if
I had known this is what I voluntered my time for
I would have went to Canada and not served in the
armed forces, I would not let obama or congress cut my yard, they both are worthless!