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Specifics on what is weak? What would you do different/better?
Is that all we have to do to get you to not post? SWEET.
Specifics on what is weak? What would you do different/better?
He's a teabagger. Much better.
Using a jobs bill to cut Medicare - that's Obama for ya.
I just realized this may be the first time in history so many white people are looking to a black man for a job.
Closing loopholes wasn't tried, but I doubt we'll ever see it.
That's why we conservative hope he fails. To embrace this en lement mentality would be the destruction of America. We are already running out of tax payers.
The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. -M.T.-
We have already run out of other people's money!
Well I don't see where ~$300 billion in temporary tax cuts is going to have much more of an effect on job creation than Bush's stimulus plan did (remember the refund checks). Add ~$50 billion in unemployment extensions, ~$100 billion in school renovations and bridge repairs, and a "I'll get back to ya" on how to pay for it and you have a weak plan.
I don't know how to turn this economy around, neither does Obama...or you.
Edit - Let's just call it like it is. This "plan" is designed specifically to box house republicans in as obstructionists so Obama can pretend he's Truman and run against the "do nothing" congress. The GOP should him over and just pass his plan "as is"...but they're not smart enough to do that unfortunately.
Last edited by SnakeBoy; 09-09-2011 at 02:03 AM.
ing word. I'm so TIRED of Obama and his speeches. ing deliver or GTFO.Speeches
I think Scott might know a thing or two about job creation. Just sayin.
He may be a smart guy but if he has all the answers to fix our healthcare system, financial system, en lement programs, debt problems, and whatever other major issues that are a drag on our economy then he's underemployed.
I don't know; I think scott's gotta be having a lot more fun making beer than he would arguing with congress.
As far as the speech itself...even weaker than the plan. Remember back when Obama had his mojo and could deliver applause lines and stand there with his chin in the air while everyone adored him. Tonight every other line was "Pass this plan please" like a kid begging his parents for something.
McConnell said he'd listen politely, then block it.
Why would a conservative hope Obama fails? Under Obama, conservatives have never had it so good. Expanded wars, privatization of public education, rolling back of EPA regulations, further erosion of civil liberties, tax cuts upon tax cuts, wall street -suckery, industry bailouts and on and on. Obama is Bush's third term. Plus you've got the deeply dishonest and ruthless pleasure of trying to frame America's first black Republican President as a dangerous socialist. Genius!
Consider that you've got a so-called Democratic president cynically using a jobs speech to push for cuts to Medicare.
Also the "we've got to slash Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid in order to save it" is the IDENTICAL position staked out by Romney in the previous night's debate.
If Obama wins you get conservative policy, if Obama loses at the very least you get Romney.
Claims that Conservatives want Obama to fail are about as convincing as claims that Obama is a socialist.
I am a very simple person. I know that a president can't 'create' jobs and many of those who are critcizing him know that. What does that make them?
Speaking for myself, I never criticized the President for not creating jobs, but for cynically using a jobs bill to insist on Medicare cuts.
I don't think the "powerless president" myth makes much sense in reference to Obama:
Obama is not a flaccid Jimmy Carter, as some of his critics insist. He is instead a Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- but a bizarro FDR. He has mustered the legislative strength of his New Deal predecessor -- but he has channeled that strength into propping up the very forces of "organized money" that FDR once challenged.
On healthcare, for instance, Obama passed a Heritage Foundation-inspired bailout of the private health insurance industry, all while undermining other more-progressive proposals. On foreign policy, he escalated old wars and initiated new ones. On civil liberties, he not only continued the Patriot Act and indefinite detention of terrorism suspects but also claimed the right to assassinate American citizens without charge.
On financial issues, he fought off every serious proposal to reregulate banks following the economic meltdown; he preserved ongoing bank bailouts; and he resisted pressure to prosecute Wall Street thieves. On fiscal matters, after extending the Bush tax cuts at a time of massive deficits, he has used the debt ceiling negotiations to set the stage for potentially massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare -- cuts that would be far bigger than any of his proposed revenue increases.
Obama isn't weak (he just isn't a liberal)
- more -
please? I don't think there was a "please" in his tone. All he did, like someone else said, is packaged everything that didn't work before and said "pass it" knowing damn well nothing is gonna happen. Oh, and with a louder voice. Yeah, it's nice saying "jobs" and all that but that doesn't mean it'll make things better when he says it. Just more of the same game of chicken they're all playing. Oh and it was nice of him to have Jeffery Immelt and Richard Trumka as his guests. That should say something.
"nothing is gonna happen"
because the Repugs will block anything, while maximizing the greatest pain for the greatest number going into Nov 2012.
I thought he did well and we all know the medicare issue does need to be addressed. No plan will be perfect and even if it was the GOP would still not like it because anything that will be a success for Obama they are against. I was glad to hear Boehner and some other republicans though say they are ready to work and get things done.
I agree this was at least part of the point of the speech, Labor Day has passed at this definitely was the kickoff of the Democrats 2012 campaign.
I think the best parts (assuming they are what they are claimed to be when the details are released) of this plan are the ones that are likely to be the most contentious: SS/Medicaid/Medicare reform, closing of tax loopholes, Corporate Tax reform, etc. and will have long lasting effects if implemented properly.
I agree the temporary tax cuts is more of the same. In theory they should provide a temporary boost to the economy, especially if that money makes its way through the economy at the same multiplier as other money does: but as we've seen with past temporary tax cuts, Americans aren't spending it: they are using it to pay down their debt (novel idea) or to save. I'm not terribly optimistic about this idea.
The payroll tax holiday could have a huge impact in terms of leading to job creation and/or capital investment for small business but at the end of the day, small businesses are just like big businesses - and the owners are under no obligation to return these benefits to workers or physical capital. They have the right to simply pocket it if they choose. The thought it that big corporations aren't impacted by these types of stimuli because they already have access to capital for their projects and a little extra moola like this doesn't make a different in the decision-making processes because it hardly makes a dent in their weighted average cost of capital (if you believe that is the decision-making metric). On the other hand, a small business doesn't have access to that kind of capital, so a payroll tax holiday provides a windfall they have no other way of accessing, and thus we count on the entrepreneurial spirit of the owner to use that windfall to fund the project he/she otherwise couldn't. Unfortunately, not even the brightest of economists have crystal balls and there is no way to tell what will actually happen.
The infrastructure spending is needed, and will provide some jobs, but $100b seems like a drop in the bucket. I like the idea of providing a superfund for private industry to borrow from better - of course then we get nutjobs like Terri Hall starting campaigns about how a private company is building a road so they can profit (well, no ... what do you think that company is in business for?).
961 days in, Obama becomes sick and tired of someone dawdling about jobs
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/wash...ws-polls-.html
Speaking on behalf of millions of Americans who've grown angry and frustrated over the president's 32-month ineffective inactivity on the job creation front, President Obama on Thursday told members of Congress they really have to do something about the crummy employment situation -- and do it quickly.
Citing the plight of millions of struggling Americans whose wishes for jobs Obama ignored for most of the 961 days he's been in office while chasing shinier healthcare and financial reforms, Obama said it was time that Congress stop blaming others. He said it was time members take responsibility for their inaction and halt their phony partisan games and political circus acts that pervade Washington culture.
Because the Americans Obama hasn't been listening to are really hurting now. And -- who's....
....counting? -- but it's only 424 days until Nov. 6, 2012. No plan yet to pay for Obama's ideas. But he wants immediate passage of his American Jobs Act anyway.
Obama, whose Democratic spending priorities have pushed the national debt beyond $14,000,000,000,000, said it was important to curb spending and keep to the deficit reduction plan agreed to earlier this summer while also investing in, you know, many important things.
He then provided a joint session of Congress with a broadly ambitious list of goals that sounded to many people very much like a lot more spending, like, say, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill of 2009 that didn't stimulate much of anything except that national debt.
With the national debt already increasing $3 million every minute of every day, Obama wants to repair and modernize 35,000 schools. Obama wants $35 billion to go toward salaries for teachers, firefighters and police.
Obama wants $140 billion largely to update roads and bridges. Obama wants another $245 billion in business and individual tax relief. Obama also wants to extend unemployment benefits.
And Obama wants it all right now. Seriously. Now that his Martha's Vineyard vacation is over, this situation is urgent.
Obama didn't have room in his 4,021 word speech to mention how he intended to pay for all this new sounds-an-awful-like-increased-new-stimulus-spending-but-we're-not-using-that-word-anymore.
Aides said Americans should trust the president and sometime soon he would be outlining the finances that would not increase the national debt by one dime, honest.
Today in Virginia and next week in Ohio, Obama begins an aggressive autumn of travels selling his sounds-like-new-spending plans by day and fundraising by evening, bashing guess who for not solving the job crisis long ago.
Because like pretty much every sentient American, he knows full well there isn't one chance in Haiti of the divided Congress approving this package.
In fact, Obama's counting on that because grandiose program-proposing like this costs nothing-zero-nada, except the limo gas to the Capitol. Yet it gives perpetual candidate Obama tons of swell-sounding details to talk about during the 2011-12 reelection campaign.
Because he can't blame his mother-in-law for the nation's economic mess. When's the last time you heard a Harvard grad say, "Boy, did I blow that!" So, the only culprits left are in Congress, especially those Repugnicans.
But here's the catch that Obama and his Windy City wizards missed: Most Americans are not politically obedient machine Chicagoans. Like a linebacker reading the quarterback's eyes, they've already figured out this South Sider's game.
This week's ABC News/Washington Post Poll found that, based on their 961 days' experience with the current White House crowd, 47% say Obama's new economic program will have zero effect on the economy.
Worse politically, twice as many -- 34% vs 17% -- say Obama's plan will actually make matters worse, instead of better.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll the other day found 73% of Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track. That's 23 points more than felt that way at the beginning of summer.
Funny coincidence. The last time the revealing wrong track number was this high (78%) was in the autumn of 2008, just two weeks before Americans bought Obama's "Change to Believe In" line.
And they have the pink slips to prove it.
Not surprising WC would come on strong with this non-sense. For conservatives... uh, I mean... libertarians?... like Wild Cobra, they don't want to see Obama reform Medicare, or accomplish anything - because it undermines their number one: defeat Obama in 2012, no matter the cost.
Their goal isn't to do what's best for America, it's to defeat Obama. So if Obama were to accomplish something the majority of Americans support, even real conservatives, then it would make achieving his goal harder.
Only in Wild Cobra's barely functioning brain would "reforming a system so that it costs less to maintain and reduces benefits going forward" be construed as a socialist plot to take more of the non-existant riches he makes as a parts-changer.
I have little faith that "temporary" tax cuts are ever temporary anymore. As soon as the "temporary" period is up, the renewal of those cuts becomes a political topic framed as "raising taxes."
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