Nbadan
08-19-2011, 11:29 PM
Same old scare tactics, same old GOP
I had someone ask me today “Why is everyone blaming President Obama for the economy?” My answer to him would not be appropriate for publishing here, but after thinking about it for a minute, the question is valid and provides what I like to call a teaching opportunity.
The first thing we have to understand is that the GOP and their lemmings want nothing more than for the President and all Democrats in Congress to lose next year’s election. That’s right, most of the nonsense you hear directed at the President has absolutely nothing to do with any founded issues with policy, but rather a battle for control.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was very clear when he indicated the number one goal as the 112th Congress began session in January was the defeat of President Obama in 2012.
This would be the number one goal over economic recovery, over reducing unemployment, over reducing the number of people in this country living in poverty, over bringing our troops home from our endless involvement in now pointless conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, over ensuring that the agreements our government made with the people of our nation in Medicare and Social Security are not only upheld, but strengthened.
Defeat President Obama, literally at any cost. Especially when none of them have to bear the burden of a continued sluggish economy.
I have been pretty clear in previous articles about the ludicrous notion that the debt crisis has a direct impact on hiring, that somehow business owners are apprehensive about hiring because we have a debt problem. Business owners are apprehensive about hiring because THEY HAVE NO CUSTOMERS.
I have also been abundantly clear in illustrating that there is absolutely no correlation between corporate tax rates and hiring. The corporate tax rate was higher every decade previous to this one, and yet unemployment continues to struggle. People do not hire because of a tax rate, they hire because they need help to meet the need of AN INCREASING CUSTOMER BASE.
The GOP has an answer to the economic crisis. It is cut spending on programs, resulting in more jobs lost, or benefits reduced, costing the people who can least afford more cuts more money, then give tax breaks to corporations because that will help them feel secure that our economy is on solid footing. Then remove any regulations that require them to produce their products without poisoning the environment, because that requirement, although equal to every company in this country, is also keeping them from hiring.
This is what the geniuses like Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and the other wannabe leaders are saying, and they point to the President as the one who has prevented this from happening.
I thought I had finally ventured far enough into this administration to stop having to remind the GOP of the epic failures of these mindless policies, but they have doubled down on their idea of reward the rich and they’ll carry the rest of us that we have no choice.
In 2001, when President Bush took office, we had a budget surplus, and we were paying the debt down consistently. We also had an unemployment rate of 4.2%, which was up from 4.1% in December. The national debt was 5.7 trillion dollars in January 2001. When the President finally left office in January of 2009, unemployment was at 7.6% and the national debt was at 10.6 trillion.
When you graph that trajectory, we should be far worse off than we are now, and the only thing that has kept us from diving straight into the abyss has been what little sanity has come from the legislation allowed to see the light of day over the past 2+ years.
Had the stimulus not required 40% of the bill be handed out in tax credits and cuts, we might have seen an even stronger stabilization of the employment market, and momentum may have swayed the other direction. You see, tax cuts and credits don’t create jobs, they don’t stop people from laying off employees. People buying goods and services is the only thing that creates jobs.
When you reach 14 million people unemployed, you indeed have an employment crisis, and that crisis drives everything else. You can put band aids on every other issue, but until you resolve to create jobs at any cost, you are losing the battle AND losing the war.
The people of this nation need to realize that there is absolutely no amount of spending cuts that can fix this problem. WE ABSOLUTELY MUST INVEST IN PROJECTS THAT WILL PUT PEOPLE TO WORK.
Infrastructure is where we must start. Roads, bridges, rail, and airport projects are sorely overdue. These can be projects that will put private companies to work, causing them to hire people to meet the need.
Alternative energy needs to be next. I don’t mean tax credits for doing energy efficient upgrades on your home or business, I mean improving the energy grid to allow for solar and wind energy to be harnessed easier. This will spur private companies to get into the business, and eventually it will be run entirely by private enterprise.
This will raise the debt in the immediate term, there is no way or reason to spin it. But as more people go to work, and get off of government assistance, government spending will decrease and revenues will increase because people and companies will be paying payroll taxes. Companies and individuals will pay more in income taxes, sales taxes, etc, as their income levels and spending levels rise.
Combine this with the conclusion of our occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the deficit becomes manageable, with no tax increases or additional spending cuts.
Then, once you have stabilized the workforce and the root of our economy is once again solid, you can attack waste in government, such as fruitless tax expenditures and loopholes which drive our revenues down and provide absolutely no benefit to the workforce. You can look at how to truly address Medicare and Social Security, not by breaking the contract with our people, but by continuing to fix the flaws in the system and the extortion that adds dramatically to the costs of the delivery system.
You don’t hear this program from anyone in D.C. because when all is said and done, one side only cares about regaining power, and the other side lacks the belief that the American public can handle the truth.
“Why is everyone blaming President Obama for the economy?” Because they don’t have an answer themselves, and if you can’t sell your own idea, just make everyone hate your opponent’s ideas.
Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly isn’t cheap.
Nothing right (http://nothingright.com/archives/1119)
and that's the truth and nothing but the truth right there
I had someone ask me today “Why is everyone blaming President Obama for the economy?” My answer to him would not be appropriate for publishing here, but after thinking about it for a minute, the question is valid and provides what I like to call a teaching opportunity.
The first thing we have to understand is that the GOP and their lemmings want nothing more than for the President and all Democrats in Congress to lose next year’s election. That’s right, most of the nonsense you hear directed at the President has absolutely nothing to do with any founded issues with policy, but rather a battle for control.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was very clear when he indicated the number one goal as the 112th Congress began session in January was the defeat of President Obama in 2012.
This would be the number one goal over economic recovery, over reducing unemployment, over reducing the number of people in this country living in poverty, over bringing our troops home from our endless involvement in now pointless conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, over ensuring that the agreements our government made with the people of our nation in Medicare and Social Security are not only upheld, but strengthened.
Defeat President Obama, literally at any cost. Especially when none of them have to bear the burden of a continued sluggish economy.
I have been pretty clear in previous articles about the ludicrous notion that the debt crisis has a direct impact on hiring, that somehow business owners are apprehensive about hiring because we have a debt problem. Business owners are apprehensive about hiring because THEY HAVE NO CUSTOMERS.
I have also been abundantly clear in illustrating that there is absolutely no correlation between corporate tax rates and hiring. The corporate tax rate was higher every decade previous to this one, and yet unemployment continues to struggle. People do not hire because of a tax rate, they hire because they need help to meet the need of AN INCREASING CUSTOMER BASE.
The GOP has an answer to the economic crisis. It is cut spending on programs, resulting in more jobs lost, or benefits reduced, costing the people who can least afford more cuts more money, then give tax breaks to corporations because that will help them feel secure that our economy is on solid footing. Then remove any regulations that require them to produce their products without poisoning the environment, because that requirement, although equal to every company in this country, is also keeping them from hiring.
This is what the geniuses like Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and the other wannabe leaders are saying, and they point to the President as the one who has prevented this from happening.
I thought I had finally ventured far enough into this administration to stop having to remind the GOP of the epic failures of these mindless policies, but they have doubled down on their idea of reward the rich and they’ll carry the rest of us that we have no choice.
In 2001, when President Bush took office, we had a budget surplus, and we were paying the debt down consistently. We also had an unemployment rate of 4.2%, which was up from 4.1% in December. The national debt was 5.7 trillion dollars in January 2001. When the President finally left office in January of 2009, unemployment was at 7.6% and the national debt was at 10.6 trillion.
When you graph that trajectory, we should be far worse off than we are now, and the only thing that has kept us from diving straight into the abyss has been what little sanity has come from the legislation allowed to see the light of day over the past 2+ years.
Had the stimulus not required 40% of the bill be handed out in tax credits and cuts, we might have seen an even stronger stabilization of the employment market, and momentum may have swayed the other direction. You see, tax cuts and credits don’t create jobs, they don’t stop people from laying off employees. People buying goods and services is the only thing that creates jobs.
When you reach 14 million people unemployed, you indeed have an employment crisis, and that crisis drives everything else. You can put band aids on every other issue, but until you resolve to create jobs at any cost, you are losing the battle AND losing the war.
The people of this nation need to realize that there is absolutely no amount of spending cuts that can fix this problem. WE ABSOLUTELY MUST INVEST IN PROJECTS THAT WILL PUT PEOPLE TO WORK.
Infrastructure is where we must start. Roads, bridges, rail, and airport projects are sorely overdue. These can be projects that will put private companies to work, causing them to hire people to meet the need.
Alternative energy needs to be next. I don’t mean tax credits for doing energy efficient upgrades on your home or business, I mean improving the energy grid to allow for solar and wind energy to be harnessed easier. This will spur private companies to get into the business, and eventually it will be run entirely by private enterprise.
This will raise the debt in the immediate term, there is no way or reason to spin it. But as more people go to work, and get off of government assistance, government spending will decrease and revenues will increase because people and companies will be paying payroll taxes. Companies and individuals will pay more in income taxes, sales taxes, etc, as their income levels and spending levels rise.
Combine this with the conclusion of our occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the deficit becomes manageable, with no tax increases or additional spending cuts.
Then, once you have stabilized the workforce and the root of our economy is once again solid, you can attack waste in government, such as fruitless tax expenditures and loopholes which drive our revenues down and provide absolutely no benefit to the workforce. You can look at how to truly address Medicare and Social Security, not by breaking the contract with our people, but by continuing to fix the flaws in the system and the extortion that adds dramatically to the costs of the delivery system.
You don’t hear this program from anyone in D.C. because when all is said and done, one side only cares about regaining power, and the other side lacks the belief that the American public can handle the truth.
“Why is everyone blaming President Obama for the economy?” Because they don’t have an answer themselves, and if you can’t sell your own idea, just make everyone hate your opponent’s ideas.
Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly isn’t cheap.
Nothing right (http://nothingright.com/archives/1119)
and that's the truth and nothing but the truth right there