August 11th, 2011
04:24 PM ET
12 years ago
Obama blames political impasse for continuing economic woes
(CNN) - Declaring himself frustrated with political fighting in Congress, President Barack Obama on Thursday blamed some of the nation's continuing economic troubles on government inaction and urged Americans to tell their elected representatives in Washington to pass bills that will create jobs.
In an energetic speech to workers at a Holland, Michigan, hybrid car battery plant helped by government stimulus funds, Obama said the U.S. economy and American workers are capable of being the best in the world, but were being held back by political stalemate in Congress.
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"Much of the debt problem, is ObamaCare, and he is totally avoiding that issue"
The numbers do not in any way whatsoever support that conclusion. Thank you for playing. Please reference Bush Tax Cuts, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Medicare Part D. Google may scare you because it tends to produce facts you don't like to confront, but claiming that the ACA is the primary cause of the debt is just so blatantly wrong that it reveals you're just repeating what you were told by someone who was purposefully trying to misinform you.
For those of you who have been paying attention, we are witnessing the collapse of the social welfare state in Europe, particularly in Greece. This is the same social welfare state that Obama has tried to impose on the United States. Obama has run in to the problem that the leftist Europeans have encountered, they have run out of OTHER people's money to spend.
"For those of you who have been paying attention, we are witnessing the collapse of the social welfare state in Europe, particularly in Greece."
Actually, what we are witnessing is Greece going into a major nosedive because when they started having economic problems they cut too much too fast. Germany has "socialized" medicine and far more "socialized" governmetn programs than we do and they're doing just fine. In fact, they're one of if not the biggest creditor in Europe. People who want to play the "socialist europe is collapsing" card are selling a stereotype/generalization with no underlying critical analysis to keep it afloat.
Ask some people and they will tell you they think a "businessman" should run the country. They seem to think this person will be able to work some magic on the economy. But the truth is that the President has very little control over the levers that provide an impact to the economy in the short term beyond fiscal (spending policy).
If I were President Obama, one short term drag on the economy I would remove is oil prices. No, "drill-baby-drill, is not a short term solution because any oil from a well started today would not produce oil for years.
Instead, I would have VP Biden, SecState Clinton, & likely SecState successor Kerry visit Saudi Arabia and convince them to boost production by 20% immediately and hold that production level for the next 16 months. In exchange for this, as President, I would offer to sell them the F-35 Stealth Fighter, which they covet.
Only under a Democrat can the Saudi's hope to get such a deal. Only under a two term Democratic administration would this ever happen because the GOP will allow the Israeli lobby to thwart the deal. [I would deploy Bill Clinton to Israel to assauage them]. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel would be made to understand that a strong US economy is in both their long term interests and that the United States expects them to get on board.
At the same time, I would authorize a DELTA force mission in Libya to capture Moammar and turn him over to the International court. Our forces could use / train some rebels to do the most dangerous parts of that mission so that we suffer no casualties. With Moammar gone, Libyian oil probably flows in 6 months or less.
The impact of that additional 20% from Saudi Arabia on oil prices would undo some of the pressure that the economy is under and would boost GDP. It's the best short term shot in the arm that petro-politics can provide. The restoration of Libiyan flow would keep the benefit's going.
My name is Gregg & I'm running for President.
"Obama has run in to the problem that the leftist Europeans have encountered, they have run out of OTHER people's money to spend."
BTW, if you want to play cute word games with quotes you probably couldn't attribute to the correct historical figure, that's fine, but we haven't run out of other peoples' money to spend: we're just being prevented from spending it after we shifted it all to them in the first place via tax cuts and decades of believing and implementing trickle-down economic policies that had the exact opposite effect than was promised. That money will come back to the people it was taken from one way or the other...higher wages, more employment and/or higher taxes...or it will be taken the hard way, which I can guarantee the elite will not enjoy (they never have enjoyed it throughout history when they learned too late they had gone too far). It will happen soon enough or the country will go belly up. The extremely rich may think they're safe from that, but they're not...not financially, not physically.
There is NO consistent data that shows tax cuts helped the economy or created jobs. Reagan cut taxes and ended up causing two recessions. Bush cut taxes and plunged us into the current great recession.
Same thing goes for spending cuts. There is no data that shows that cutting spending during a recession helps. In fact, historically it has caused recessions or made them worse. Cuts in spending made Hoover's already great depression even worse. Truman cut spending and ended with a recession. Carter cut spending as well in several parts of government and republicans can't stop blaming him for how that exact thing caused a recession.
Meanwhile the rich have kept their tax cuts AND got bailouts AND got subsidies AND STILL they cut jobs! I thought they said they needed all that money to create jobs! No! They just pocketed the money and fired the people anyway!
President Obama has been fighting for programs since he took office. he has had to deal with a recession and war and a congress that filibusters and blocks everything he has tried to do....even trying to pass those programs that republicans suggested or wrote. To these people no matter what he does.....its too much,too little,too late, too soon ,not good enough not not not!!!!! He keeps trying to improve America. I got eyes and ears. the gop-teaparty will not get my vote. All I have seen from them with few exceptions is destruction and poor attitudes.OBAMA-BIDEN 2012!!!!!!!!
Humm,
The boy thinks he is a Figure Head only and it is up to other to make things work. Now it's Gridlock. If Obama had extended the Bush Tax Cuts for 10 more years people would have jobs. But he reminds me of a saying I haven't heard since the 50's. He has his finger up his *ss and his mind in neutral. He fiddles while Rome burns. But, it is someone' elses fault.
There are some really blind fools on this thread. Blinded my t-tard and neo-con garbage!!! Cutting off their proverbial noses with hope of enhancing their UGLY looks.
Wow... Folks on the left are so deluded.
I hope, for my children's sakes, that you do not get your way one more time.... This has been more than enough.
By the way, more stimulus? Economy was improving? Good God....
Take, take, take... That's all you want. Disgusting how "entitled" our society has become.
In the few short years that Obama has been President, Republicans have fillibustered a record number of bills. There have been litterally more than twice as many fillibusters by the GOP in the past few years than in the enitre history of Congress put together.
Then since gaining the House in Jan. – under the promise to focus like a laser on jobs and the economy – the GOP have done absolutely nothing. The past several months their legislation has consisted of naming a few buildings and debating light bulbs. Since Repbulicans have gained the majority, this has been the least productive and most unliked Congress in history.
The Republicans in Congress have taken the stance of "my way or no way!". They point blank refuse to cooperate or compromise. In fact, they hold it up as a point of pride.
The American government is a complex and large system. It is far too simplistic to say that since Obama is President and the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, they are the ones in control. The Republicans are doing everything in their power to stop the machine of government from working. Since Obama has become President, the GOP have initiated an unprecedented policy of total obstructionism and blind, spiteful partisanship. All to sabotage Obama's presidency and return themsevles back to power – with no concern to the harm they are doing to the country in the process.
Sniffit I'm just sitting back watching you hit them out of the ballpark, and learning quite a bit in the process, thanks!
P.S. I loooove Google!!! lol
Blame: Congress, Tea Party, Republican Party, Pres Bush, Earthquake, big oil companies, corporate jets, Boehner, Fox News, S&P .... the list goes on and on.
The only person he doesn't blame is himself: Increased regulations, failed stimulus, no shovel ready jobs, loss of AAA rating, increased spending, Obamacare ...