Author Topic: Obama: The Out of Touch President  (Read 4535 times)

Straw Man

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #25 on: June 09, 2012, 10:01:13 AM »
as a business person you should be ashamed...

to think that there isnt more uncertainty in the markets and business b/c of obamas agenda and legislation is assinine.

yeah, well let me know when you become a self employed business person

my business is filled with as much uncertaintly today as it was the day I quit my corporate banking job when I was 24 and became self employed

that will never change no matter who is in office

Soul Crusher

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #26 on: June 09, 2012, 10:07:33 AM »
yeah, well let me know when you become a self employed business person

my business is filled with as much uncertaintly today as it was the day I quit my corporate banking job when I was 24 and became self employed

that will never change no matter who is in office


You are letting your idealogy and love of obama clowd your judgment  - obamaCare, dodd frank, energy taxes, etc etc have been like a wet blanket over the economy. 

Straw Man

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #27 on: June 09, 2012, 10:08:28 AM »

You are letting your idealogy and love of obama clowd your judgment  - obamaCare, dodd frank, energy taxes, etc etc have been like a wet blanket over the economy. 

I have no love of Obama dumbass

I've criticized him many times

same goes for Dems


tonymctones

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #28 on: June 09, 2012, 10:11:29 AM »
I totally agree

our manufacturing base is decimated and both parties are to blame and both parties could correct the problem if they wanted to do so but then those corporate profit pictures might not look quite so awesome
the idea is to improve the profit picture of everyone including the corporations.

what you want to do is take money away from them and give it out, well if you try to take money away what do you think they are going to do?

find ways to keep you from taking the money!!!

tonymctones

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #29 on: June 09, 2012, 10:12:15 AM »
yeah, well let me know when you become a self employed business person

my business is filled with as much uncertaintly today as it was the day I quit my corporate banking job when I was 24 and became self employed

that will never change no matter who is in office
so now you own your own business eh?

you own your own finance business?

doing what exactly might I ask?

Soul Crusher

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #30 on: June 09, 2012, 10:13:01 AM »
The President on Growth

An instructive Friday press conference..

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303665904577454813748971348.html



That sure was a revealing White House press conference with President Obama Friday morning, and not for the reason that Republicans are saying. Mr. Obama said at one point that "the private economy is doing fine," and Mitt Romney and others quickly ripped him for being "out of touch." A few hours later, Mr. Obama corrected himself by saying at another event that "It is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That's why I had a press conference."
 




Assistant editorial page editor James Freeman on President Obama's prescriptions for growth. Photo: Getty Images
.
This is all good campaign fun, but Mr. Obama's presser was far more revealing for what it said about how he thinks an economy grows. His line about "the private economy doing fine" was followed immediately by a complaint that America's real growth problem today is shrinking government. Here's the complete context:
 
"The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we've created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government—oftentimes, cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don't have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.

"And so, if Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is, how do we help state and local governments and how do we help the construction industry."
 
Mull that one over. GDP growth in the first quarter was a measly 1.9%, revised down from an initial 2.2%. The President's response is to say as his first policy priority that the federal government should borrow or tax more so it can then finance more hiring by state and local governments. Spur the economy by growing the size of government.
 
It's true that government spending is part of GDP, and spending more can boost reported GDP for a time. But the lesson of the stimulus—which spent hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to the states—is that this boost is temporary and fades when the spending ends.

Mr. Obama also misdiagnoses state and local government layoffs. They aren't the result of falling state and local revenues, which have increased by 6% over the last two years, according to the Census Bureau. The problem is that the cost of worker benefits is growing faster than revenues. Governments are having to lay off workers to pay for their rising pension and health bills.

That's especially true in states that haven't followed the example of Wisconsin's Scott Walker and altered their benefits or reformed collective bargaining. Think California and Illinois. Mr. Obama is asking Congress to tax Americans from every state more, and borrow more from China, to send money to states that have been the most spendthrift.

If the President really wants to help state and local governments, he'd campaign with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for pension reform. Or he'd join Mayor Chuck Reed in San Jose to praise that city's voters for passing a reform referendum this week. Both mayors are Democrats.
 
The fair if depressing takeaway from Mr. Obama's press conference is that he continues to believe, despite three and a half years of failure, that more government spending is the key to faster growth and that government really doesn't need to reform. This is how you get a jobless rate above 8% for 40 months and the weakest economic recovery in 60 years.

A version of this article appeared June 9, 2012, on page A12 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The President on Growth.

Straw Man

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #31 on: June 09, 2012, 10:19:06 AM »
the idea is to improve the profit picture of everyone including the corporations.

what you want to do is take money away from them and give it out, well if you try to take money away what do you think they are going to do?

find ways to keep you from taking the money!!!

I never said or suggested we take money away from anyone

why do you think corporations need more help

go look at that chart again

the group that needs help is the middle class and by helping them corporations will more secure and healthier in the long term

helping the middle class means we have legislation that incentivizes companies to produce goods in the US and disincentivizes them from sending jobs overseas

I think we also have to get rid of defined benefit pensions (I've said this a million times) at the federal level on down the line (private companies have been phasing them out for years already but they are free to do whatever they want in that regard)




Straw Man

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #32 on: June 09, 2012, 10:19:50 AM »
so now you own your own business eh?

you own your own finance business?

doing what exactly might I ask?

I run abortions clinics

great money

tonymctones

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #33 on: June 09, 2012, 10:23:18 AM »
I never said or suggested we take money away from anyone

why do you think corporations need more help

go look at that chart again

the group that needs help is the middle class and by helping them corporations will more secure and healthier in the long term

helping the middle class means we have legislation that incentivizes companies to produce goods in the US and disincentivizes them from sending jobs overseas

I think we also have to get rid of defined benefit pensions (I've said this a million times) at the federal level on down the line (private companies have been phasing them out for years already but they are free to do whatever they want in that regard)
Totally agree, how is raising taxes and producing legislation after legislation that companies have to adhere to going to help that?

tonymctones

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #34 on: June 09, 2012, 10:27:03 AM »
I run abortions clinics

great money
well I guess that settles it.

I guess since your make belief business doesnt feel any more uncertainty due to obamas agenda then it must not exist...::)

Straw Man

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #35 on: June 09, 2012, 10:29:05 AM »
Totally agree, how is raising taxes and producing legislation after legislation that companies have to adhere to going to help that?

when did I say anything in this thread about raising taxes ?

The first thing that both parties have to agree on is that there is a benefit to everone with having a strong middle class

If politicians can't agree on that premise that nothing will get done and we'll continue on the same path

Straw Man

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #36 on: June 09, 2012, 10:30:33 AM »
well I guess that settles it.

I guess since your make belief business doesnt feel any more uncertainty due to obamas agenda then it must not exist...::)

you're free to believe whatever you'd like


tonymctones

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #37 on: June 09, 2012, 11:13:15 AM »
when did I say anything in this thread about raising taxes ?

The first thing that both parties have to agree on is that there is a benefit to everone with having a strong middle class

If politicians can't agree on that premise that nothing will get done and we'll continue on the same path
which party disagrees with that?


Soul Crusher

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #38 on: June 09, 2012, 11:25:58 AM »
Skip to comments.
The U.S. Economy By The Numbers: 70 Facts That Barack Obama Does Not Want You To See
 The Economic Collapse Blog ^ | 06/09/2012 | Michael Snyder

Posted on Saturday, June 09, 2012 1:28:44 PM by SeekAndFind





Why is the economy going to collapse? Have you ever been asked that question? If so, what did you say? Sometimes it is difficult to communicate dozens of complicated economic and financial concepts in a package that the average person on the street can easily digest. It can be very frustrating to know that something is true but not be able to explain it clearly to someone else. Hopefully many of you out there will find the list below useful. It is a list of 70 numbers that show why we are headed for a national economic nightmare. So why does the title of the article single out Barack Obama? Well, it is because right now he is the biggest cheerleader for the economy. He is attempting to convince all of us that everything is just fine and that the economy is heading in a positive direction. Well, the truth is that everything is not fine and things are about to get a whole lot worse. Certainly others should share in the blame as well. Congress has been steering the economy in the wrong direction for decades, the "too big to fail" banks have turned Wall Street into a pyramid of risk, leverage and debt, and the Federal Reserve has more power over the financial system than anyone else does. Our economy has been in decline for quite a while now, and soon we are going to smash directly into an economic brick wall. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in denial about this. A lot of people out there doubt that an economic collapse is coming. Well, if you know someone that believes that the U.S. economy is going to be "just fine", just show them the list below.

The following are 70 facts that Barack Obama does not want you to see....

$3.59 - When Barack Obama entered the White House, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.85. Today, it is $3.59.

22 - It is hard to believe, but today the poverty rate for children living in the United States is a whopping 22 percent.

23 - According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities permanently shut down in the United States every single day during 2010.

30 - Back in 2007, about 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks or longer. Today, that number is above 30 percent.

32 - The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

35 - U.S. housing prices are now down a total of 35 percent from the peak of the housing bubble.

40 - The official U.S. unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row.

42 - According to one survey, 42 percent of all American workers are currently living paycheck to paycheck.

48 - Shockingly, at this point 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

49 - Today, an astounding 49.1 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives benefits from the government.

53 - Last year, an astounding 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.

60 - According to a recent Gallup poll, only 60 percent of all Americans say that they have enough money to live comfortably.

61 - At this point the Federal Reserve is essentially monetizing much of the U.S. national debt. For example, the Federal Reserve bought up approximately 61 percent of all government debt issued by the U.S. Treasury Department during 2011.

63 - One recent survey found that 63 percent of all Americans believe that the U.S. economic model is broken.

71 - Today, 71 percent of all small business owners believe that the U.S. economy is still in a recession.

80 - Americans buy 80 percent of the pain pills sold on the entire globe each year.

81 - Credit card debt among Americans in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket has risen by 81 percent since 1989.

85 - 85 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China.

86 - According to one survey, 86 percent of Americans workers in their sixties say that they will continue working past their 65th birthday.

90 - In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

93 - The United States now ranks 93rd in the world in income inequality.

95 - The middle class continues to shrink - 95 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were middle class jobs.

107 - Each year, the average American must work 107 days just to make enough money to pay local, state and federal taxes.

350 - The average CEO now makes approximately 350 times as much as the average American worker makes.

400 - According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.

$500 - In some areas of Detroit, Michigan you can buy a three bedroom home for just $500.

627 - In 2010, China produced 627 million metric tons of steel. The United States only produced 80 million metric tons of steel.

877 - 20,000 workers recently applied for just 877 jobs at a Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama.

900 - Auto parts exports from China to the United States have increased by more than 900 percent since the year 2000.

$1580 - When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1580 an ounce.

1700 - Consumer debt in America has risen by a whopping 1700% since 1971.

2016 - It is being projected that the Chinese economy will be larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2016.

$4155 - The average American household spent a staggering $4,155 on gasoline during 2011.

$4300 - The amount by which real median household income has declined since Barack Obama entered the White House.

$6000 - If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

$10,000 - According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

49,000 - In 2011, our trade deficit with China was more than 49,000 times larger than it was back in 1985.

50,000 - The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

56,000 - The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

$85,000 - According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs.

$175,587 - The Obama administration spent $175,587 to find out if cocaine causes Japanese quail to engage in sexually risky behavior.

$328,404 - Over the next 75 years, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars. That comes to $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.

$361,330 - This is what the average banker in New York City made in 2010.

440,00 - If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to totally pay it off.

500,000 - According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

2,000,000 - Family farms are being systematically wiped out of existence in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the United States has fallen from about 6.8 million in 1935 to only about 2 million today.

$2,000,000 - At this point, the U.S. national debt is rising by more than 2 million dollars every single minute.

2,600,000 - In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

5,400,000 - When Barack Obama first took office there were 2.7 million long-term unemployed Americans. Today there are twice as many.

16,000,000 - It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

$20,000,000 - The amount of money the U.S. government was spending to create a version of Sesame Street for children in Pakistan.

25,000,000 - Today, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.

40,000,000 - According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue.

46,405,204 - The number of Americans currently on food stamps. When Barack Obama first entered the White House there were only 32 million Americans on food stamps.

88,000,000 - Today there are more than 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment. That is an all-time record high.

100,000,000 - Overall, there are more than 100 million working age Americans that do not currently have jobs.

$150,000,000 - This is approximately the amount of money that the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress are stealing from future generations of Americans every single hour.

$2,000,000,000 - The amount of money that JP Morgan has admitted that it will lose from derivatives trades gone bad. Many analysts are convinced that the real number will actually end up being much higher.

$147,000,000,000 - In the U.S., medical costs related to obesity are estimated to be approximately 147 billion dollars a year.

295,500,000,000 - Our trade deficit with China in 2011 was $295.5 billion. That was the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the planet.

$359,100,000,000 - During the first quarter of 2012, U.S. public debt rose by 359.1 billion dollars. U.S. GDP only rose by 142.4 billion dollars.

$454,000,000,000 - During fiscal 2011, the U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt.

$1,000,000,000,000 - The total amount of student loan debt in the United States recently surpassed the one trillion dollar mark.

$1,170,000,000,000 - China now holds approximately 1.17 trillion dollars of U.S. government debt. Yet the U.S. government continues to send them millions of dollars in foreign aid every year.

$1,600,000,000,000 - The amount that has been added to the U.S. national debt since the Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives. This is more than the first 97 Congresses added to the national debt combined.

$5,000,000,000,000 - The U.S. national debt has risen by more than 5 trillion dollars since the day that Barack Obama first took office. In a little more than 3 years Obama has added more to the national debt than the first 41 presidents combined.

$5,000,000,000,000 - What the real U.S. budget deficit in 2011 would have been if the federal government had used generally accepted accounting principles.

$11,440,000,000,000 - The total amount of consumer debt in the United States.

$15,734,596,578,458.59 - The U.S. national debt as of June 7, 2012.

$200,000,000,000,000 - Today, the 9 largest banks in the United States have a total of more than 200 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. When the derivatives market completely collapses there won't be enough money in the entire world to fix it.




Soul Crusher

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #39 on: June 09, 2012, 09:45:48 PM »

Published on The Weekly Standard (http://www.weeklystandard.com)

Slow Learner

Fred Barnes

June 18, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 38
President Obama has been touted by friends and family as the smartest man ever to sit in the White House. Perhaps. Yet he surely is the slowest learner to gain the presidency and probably the most intellectually inflexible. Obama is not only presiding over the most sluggish economic recovery in 80 years, but the economic future looks even worse. In May, a woefully small number of jobs were created, the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent, and the rate of growth in the first quarter of 2012 was shaved from 2.2 percent to 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office warned that if Obama leaves his economic program in place, a recession in 2013 is all but certain.

His response? Let’s do more of the same. This means a tidal wave of tax increases would hit the economy. The Bush era tax cuts for incomes over $200,000 ($250,000 for couples) would expire, boosting the top rate to 42 percent, when deduction phaseouts are included. And two Obama-care increases would take effect, a 0.9 percent hike in the Medicare tax and a 2.9 percent surcharge on investment income.

That’s not all. Obama is bristling with plans for “some things we do better together,” his euphemism for jacking up spending on anything he can think of except defense. Government programs, he suggested last week in Chicago, are “what has made this country great.” His 10-year budget would increase the national debt by $6 trillion.

True, the president routinely feigns love for free markets. “We believe in the marketplace,” he declared at a fundraiser with Bill Clinton last week. “We believe in entrepreneurship and rewarding risk-taking.” This was followed, as always, by a “but” and the claim that government is at the core of what made America “an economic superpower.”

No doubt Obama believes that. Having never been an entrepreneur or risk-taker, he hasn’t a clue about what prompts them to invest their time and money in ways that produce growth and jobs. And he’s too ideologically committed to government programs to find out how the private economy works.

Which leads us to President Reagan, the record of economic recoveries around the world, and suggested reading over the summer to broaden Obama’s economic understanding.

As Obama must know, the Reagan recovery was a stunning success. And it wasn’t spurred by government spending. It was based on a 25 percent cut in individual income tax rates, phased in over three years, and initial spending cuts followed by efforts to curb spending growth.

Five months before Reagan was reelected, the jobless rate had fallen from a high of 10.8 percent and was heading to 7.2 percent on Election Day. Reagan was talking about “morning in America.” Five months before the 2012 election, Obama is reduced to concocting misleading economic claims to justify his reelection—or changing the subject.

Reagan’s economic record is not unique. Harvard economists Alberto Alesina and Silvia Ardagna studied policies aimed at stimulating the economy in 21 countries between 1970 and 2007. Their conclusions were unequivocal. “Fiscal stimuli based upon tax cuts are more likely to increase growth than those based on spending increases,” they wrote. “We would argue that the current stimulus package in the United States is too much tilted in the direction of [federal] spending rather than tax cuts.” They added that spending cuts are “much more effective than tax increases in stabilizing debt and avoiding economic downturns.”

The Alesina-Ardagna study is hardly a secret. It may not have come to the president’s attention, but his economic advisers are bound to know of it. In any event, it hasn’t had an iota of influence in the Obama White House.

But there’s still a chance Obama could learn the error of his economic ways. Every summer, he puts together a list of serious books he intends to read while on vacation. Last year, the list included books on civility, migrations, and a novel by Geraldine Brooks.

This summer, the president would benefit from including Job Creation: How It Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It. The authors are David Newton, a finance professor at Westmont College in California, and Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants.

They make two main points. One is that “private enterprise, unencumbered by excessive government intervention, will create jobs. Period!” The other: “If job creation and economic prosperity were the result of government action and stimulus, currently we should be experiencing one of the greatest economic booms in our history.”

When the freshman class of House Republicans elected in 2010 arrived in Washington, Representative Paul Ryan gave a copy of Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt to each of them. Hazlitt’s overriding lesson: There is a “persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy .  .  . and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be.” If Obama is as smart as he’s supposed to be, he’ll ask Ryan for a copy.

—Fred Barnes

Subscribe now to The Weekly Standard!

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Copyright 2012 Weekly Standard LLC.

Source URL: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/slow-learner_646841.html

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #40 on: June 09, 2012, 10:56:59 PM »
Published on The Weekly Standard (http://www.weeklystandard.com)

Slow Learner

Fred Barnes

June 18, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 38
President Obama has been touted by friends and family as the smartest man ever to sit in the White House. Perhaps. Yet he surely is the slowest learner to gain the presidency and probably the most intellectually inflexible. Obama is not only presiding over the most sluggish economic recovery in 80 years, but the economic future looks even worse. In May, a woefully small number of jobs were created, the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent, and the rate of growth in the first quarter of 2012 was shaved from 2.2 percent to 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office warned that if Obama leaves his economic program in place, a recession in 2013 is all but certain.

His response? Let’s do more of the same. This means a tidal wave of tax increases would hit the economy. The Bush era tax cuts for incomes over $200,000 ($250,000 for couples) would expire, boosting the top rate to 42 percent, when deduction phaseouts are included. And two Obama-care increases would take effect, a 0.9 percent hike in the Medicare tax and a 2.9 percent surcharge on investment income.

That’s not all. Obama is bristling with plans for “some things we do better together,” his euphemism for jacking up spending on anything he can think of except defense. Government programs, he suggested last week in Chicago, are “what has made this country great.” His 10-year budget would increase the national debt by $6 trillion.

True, the president routinely feigns love for free markets. “We believe in the marketplace,” he declared at a fundraiser with Bill Clinton last week. “We believe in entrepreneurship and rewarding risk-taking.” This was followed, as always, by a “but” and the claim that government is at the core of what made America “an economic superpower.”

No doubt Obama believes that. Having never been an entrepreneur or risk-taker, he hasn’t a clue about what prompts them to invest their time and money in ways that produce growth and jobs. And he’s too ideologically committed to government programs to find out how the private economy works.

Which leads us to President Reagan, the record of economic recoveries around the world, and suggested reading over the summer to broaden Obama’s economic understanding.

As Obama must know, the Reagan recovery was a stunning success. And it wasn’t spurred by government spending. It was based on a 25 percent cut in individual income tax rates, phased in over three years, and initial spending cuts followed by efforts to curb spending growth.

Five months before Reagan was reelected, the jobless rate had fallen from a high of 10.8 percent and was heading to 7.2 percent on Election Day. Reagan was talking about “morning in America.” Five months before the 2012 election, Obama is reduced to concocting misleading economic claims to justify his reelection—or changing the subject.

Reagan’s economic record is not unique. Harvard economists Alberto Alesina and Silvia Ardagna studied policies aimed at stimulating the economy in 21 countries between 1970 and 2007. Their conclusions were unequivocal. “Fiscal stimuli based upon tax cuts are more likely to increase growth than those based on spending increases,” they wrote. “We would argue that the current stimulus package in the United States is too much tilted in the direction of [federal] spending rather than tax cuts.” They added that spending cuts are “much more effective than tax increases in stabilizing debt and avoiding economic downturns.”

The Alesina-Ardagna study is hardly a secret. It may not have come to the president’s attention, but his economic advisers are bound to know of it. In any event, it hasn’t had an iota of influence in the Obama White House.

But there’s still a chance Obama could learn the error of his economic ways. Every summer, he puts together a list of serious books he intends to read while on vacation. Last year, the list included books on civility, migrations, and a novel by Geraldine Brooks.

This summer, the president would benefit from including Job Creation: How It Really Works and Why Government Doesn’t Understand It. The authors are David Newton, a finance professor at Westmont College in California, and Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants.

They make two main points. One is that “private enterprise, unencumbered by excessive government intervention, will create jobs. Period!” The other: “If job creation and economic prosperity were the result of government action and stimulus, currently we should be experiencing one of the greatest economic booms in our history.”

When the freshman class of House Republicans elected in 2010 arrived in Washington, Representative Paul Ryan gave a copy of Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt to each of them. Hazlitt’s overriding lesson: There is a “persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy .  .  . and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be.” If Obama is as smart as he’s supposed to be, he’ll ask Ryan for a copy.

—Fred Barnes

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Source URL: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/slow-learner_646841.html


That is outstanding commentary.  Nailed it.

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #41 on: June 10, 2012, 06:44:21 PM »
JUNE 10, 2012
"Why Obama is 'President O.O.T.'"

By Kevin McCullough
6/10/2012
 
The rage of the heat blowing in the direction of the White House this past Friday was so intense that in less than three hours from saying what has to be the most universally disconnected assertion in Presidential history President Obama was back at the microphone lapping up what he said like a dog at his own vomit.

He had no choice.

Never in the course of economic stagnation has a less-feeling, more callous, completely out-of-touch sentence been uttered.

"The private sector is doing fine."

In all of the debates that can be had over policy direction, administration priorities, whether or not the free market should be allowed to fail (and hence reinvent itself), or not (and hence keep the drag of economic growth going) one thing was known by both sides in the partisan ranks--the private sector is not fine.

America currently has the lowest participation in the employment pool of workers (by percentage) in over thirty years. Long after the 99 weeks of unemployment checks stopped coming, people have given up. The job market has dried up. Innovation has died a painful assassination, the bullet being fired into the head, by the administration's own war on the small business man or woman.

It is painful. It is humiliating. It is gut wrenching. In short it is anything but "fine."

If we were looking at the same employment pool (numbers) as when President Obama came into office in 2009, our actual unemployment number (those who are out of work but desire it desperately) is closer to 14%, and our underemployment (families who are working has hard as they can but can't pay for their basic needs) is closer to 25%.

There is legitimate discussion to be had about solutions to these dismaying numbers. There are genuine debates that can be had on college campuses this early fall about which direction would solve the problems. But no one can dispute that the private sector (the overwhelming engine of economic activity) is anything close to fine.

What was almost as equally disturbing the in the soundbite taken from President Obama's answer was the portion following the the "fine" comment.

He proceeded: "Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. Often times cuts initiated by, you know, Governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don’t have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in."

Here we see revealed an equally inane view of economic need, growth, development and solution.

In reality governments have tremendous power to levy the kind of help needed. State and local governments have fewer solutions than the federal government, but only by one choice. State, Local, and Federal governments all have the ability to borrow money or to raise taxes.

But state and local governments are under the gun of an electorate who is very close to them, doesn't want to see fiscal mismanagement, and has no use for even more of their hard earned money being lost in wasteful fashion. The federal government being further removed from the people, gets away with high-end Las Vegas conferences, endless rounds of golf, or sending the first dame and kids off on Air Force 1 vacations at the drop of the hat--without as much immediate consequence.

The federal government also has the one ability that states and municipalities do not--the control the printing presses to the currency. And in this administration's view--printing up as much as we need--doesn't seem to be terribly objectionable.

One of the reasons, I'm earnestly convinced, that President Obama does so few press briefings in recent days is partly due to the fact that he does not seem to be able to appear without demonstrating a considerable distance between himself, and "the little people." He has demonstrated this in his positions on fiscal issues, the manipulation of our national defense--and access for Hollywood insiders, and even every day American moral values. Bottom line: the king has no clothes.

His attempt to back pedal later on Friday was all spin to save face, and to not take a blow in this tightening election cycle in which normally blue states like Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, and Colorado--maybe even California are all coming into play for the GOP. But don't be confused--he believes he created jobs, he's done his part, and he has a tee time at 4pm.

Perhaps the most "out-of-touch" assertion ever issued by a sitting President, has also sealed--at least for Obama--the reality, that he is also... finally... for the good of America...

Out-of-time.

Kevin McCullough
Kevin McCullough is the nationally syndicated host of "The Kevin McCullough Show" weekdays (7-9am EST) & "Baldwin/McCullough Radio" Saturdays (9-11pm EST) on 289 stations. His newest best-selling hardcover from Thomas Nelson Publishers, "No He Can't: How Barack Obama is Dismantling Hope and Change" is in stores now.





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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #42 on: June 11, 2012, 03:19:05 AM »
The president’s news conference belly-flop Friday was a killer on two levels. Obviously, the private sector is not doing fine, as Obama admitted later in the day when he tried to walk back the remark. (But if it’s not doing fine is he to blame? No! That’s 2E and 2F.) But the rest of his message — that it’s good to keep growing the public sector — won’t be walked back. That is what he believes and why his comments, coupled with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s victory in last week’s recall election, spell big trouble for him.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board explained:

GDP growth in the first quarter was a measly 1.9%, revised down from an initial 2.2%. The President’s response is to say as his first policy priority that the federal government should borrow or tax more so it can then finance more hiring by state and local governments. Spur the economy by growing the size of government.
It’s true that government spending is part of GDP, and spending more can boost reported GDP for a time. But the lesson of the stimulus — which spent hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to the states — is that this boost is temporary and fades when the spending ends.
President Obama seems unaware that we need the private sector to generate wealth (you know, make things, sell things, etc.) or that we face in the near future a fiscal crisis when we can no longer off-load our debt. Where does he think the money to pay for an ever-expanding public employee workforce comes from? (“The fair if depressing takeaway from Mr. Obama’s press conference is that he continues to believe, despite three and a half years of failure, that more government spending is the key to faster growth and that government really doesn’t need to reform. This is how you get a jobless rate above 8% for 40 months and the weakest economic recovery in 60 years.”)

The lesson in Wisconsin was entirely lost on the president. There, the taxpayers figured out that paying for (with rising taxes) the cushy salaries and lavish benefits of government employees is not the way to put the state’s fiscal house in order. If you want to lure business, increase economic activity and return prosperity you cannot keeping growing government — all that borrowing, spending and taxing eventually catches up with you.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie grasped this point when he spoke in Chicago:

Christie argued that New Jersey has more government workers per square mile than any other state, but said the trend is reversing under his leadership. Midway through his first term, the state now has fewer people on its payroll than it has since Republican Christie Todd Whitman was governor more than a decade ago, he said.
“That’s the right direction, Mr. President, not the wrong direction,” Christie said.
“It is an outrage to have the president of the United States stand up and say to hardworking governors — Democrats and Republicans in this country — that state and local government hiring is moving in the wrong direction, and we’re to blame,” Christie said.
The president has learned nothing in the past four years. In his book we haven’t enlarged government enough, borrowed enough, hired enough civil servants and taxed wealth-creators enough. If the entire electorate thought like Paul Krugman, this philosophy would be hailed. But in the real world, Americans simply don’t buy this.

The left blogosphere has predictably pulled out from the excuse matrix two defenses for Obama’s Friday meltdown: “It is a communications problem” (Obama didn’t say what he meant), and “The voters don’t care.” But are they going to defend the preposterous notion that what is holding us back is too few government workers? The president is sinking, but the entire Democratic Party and liberal punditocracy need not go down with the ship. For now, however, the lefty blogosphere seems determined to do precisely that.

By    Jennifer Rubin  |  09:00 AM ET, 06/10/2012

WAPO. 






FORWARD - over the cliff w Ghettobama. 

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #43 on: June 11, 2012, 09:58:57 AM »
Report: Obama Considering Naming Elitist Vogue Editor Anna Wintour To Be Next US Ambassador
 Weasel Zippers ^ | 6/11/12 | zip




No, not a joke (at least in the traditional sense).

Via The Independent:

Last week: film. This week: fashion. Doubling down on a strategy which incites critics as much as it seems to excite supporters, Barack Obama will devote part of yet another busy week to soliciting endorsements and campaign dollars from Americas A-list.

The President will attend a series of high-profile fundraisers with key figures from the fashion industry, led by Anna Wintour, the British-born editor of Vogue magazine, who yesterday was tipped as a possible future candidate for US Ambassador to London.

Speculative reports suggest that Wintour, 62, is a candidate to succeed Louis Susman, America’s representative in the UK, who is set to retire later this year. The formidable editor, who inspired The Devil Wears Prada, has been named a “top bundler” for Obama, having raised more than half a million dollars for his “Victory Fund.”


(Excerpt) Read more at weaselzippers.us ...

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #44 on: June 11, 2012, 02:01:47 PM »
[ Invalid YouTube link ]

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #45 on: June 11, 2012, 06:46:01 PM »
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/06/11/obama_shocked_to_hear_obamacare_hurts_small_businesses.html



My god.   Obama is dumber and more delusional than any of us can fathom.

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Re: Obama: The Out of Touch President
« Reply #46 on: June 13, 2012, 03:07:08 AM »
Obama claims most Americans aren't closely following 2012 race at campaign stop
fox ^ | 6/12/12 | fox
Posted on June 12, 2012 11:50:52 PM EDT by Nachum

PHILADELPHIA – President Barack Obama said Tuesday night he believed the majority of Americans were not closely following the ups and downs of the presidential campaign.

Obama, who attended six fundraisers in Baltimore and Philadelphia on Tuesday, has not had a good start to June after coming under fire for saying "the private sector is doing fine" during a news conference last Friday.

Speaking at a fundraiser at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, Obama said he believed the good news is that the American people agree with his campaign's policies of moving the country forward.

"They're not following ... the ups and downs, the ins and outs of this campaign," he said.

"But they do have a sense of what's true. They have pretty good instincts about what works and they're not persuaded that an economy built on the notion that everybody here is on their own is somehow going to result in a stronger, more prosperous America. So our job is to just make sure that we get that message out."

Earlier Tuesday, a day after prominent Democratic strategists warned the party's basic message is not working, Obama spoke at a fundraising event near Baltimore and delivered a version of the same speech he has been giving for months, The Wall Street Journal reported.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...