Obama spells out plan to combat joblessness
President says U.S. still must spend its way out of recession
The headline says it all; “we must spend our way out of recession”. Never mind the fact that this flies in the face of logic. Straddling the U.S. economy with trillions of dollars in debt is a sure recipe for disaster not recovery.
With bailouts and stimulus mark I behind and cap and trade along with health care looming on the horizon it seems that this administration is dead set on destroying this economy; and the country along with it.
Besides the crippling debt that these programs have created conspicuously lacking are the promised jobs. The first stimulus was billed as a job creation bill and has failed miserably to deliver. Unemployment rates have skyrocketed to near historic levels and the administration continues to blame Republicans instead of acknowledging the egregious error that was the stimulus bill.
Rather than accept his mistakes and learn from them Obama has seen fit to trudge forward on this track of national homicide. While simultaneously ignoring the facts and shifting the blame Obama is content to cling to insignificant indicators of economic recovery while riding the tsunami of inflation and unemployment into the cliffs.
The question that remains unanswered is this; is it simply incompetence or a well thought out and organized attempt to remake this country into a liberal/socialist utopia?
The jury is deliberating but the answer will soon be irrelevant. Quickly enough the question of incompetence or malfeasance will be replaced with laments of “how could this happen in America”. By then finger pointing and political pandering will be replaced with simple issues of survival as the country we have come to love disappears amidst the fallout.
The following story from MSNBC (originally posted on December 08 2009) serves to illuminate just how disconnected Obama has become:
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama outlined major new government stimulus and jobs proposals on Tuesday, saying the nation must continue to "spend our way out of this recession."
Without giving a price tag, Obama proposed a package of new spending for highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, deeper tax breaks for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient.
This is the same billing that was given to the first stimulus bill. We have seen no jobs created and millions lost. Businesses have struggled and shovel ready projects have faded into the ether. The one question that should be on the tongues of every voting American is this; why should we believe you this time?
"We avoided the depression many feared," Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But, he added, "Our work is far from done."
For the third time in a week, Obama sought to focus on job creation, noting that the jobless rate continues in double digits and that "a staggering" 7 million Americans have lost jobs since the recession began in December 2007.
“A staggering” 7 million Americans have lost jobs since December 2007; this is the best argument against another stimulus and it comes from the mouth of the president himself.
While his proposal did not include the kind of direct federal public works jobs that were created in the 1930s, he said government could set the stage for more job creation by private businesses.
To this end Obama would be better served to cut the taxes on small businesses and relax regulations. Obama speaks from both sides of his mouth and to disparate ends. From one side he claims to want to create jobs and help small businesses by deficit spending; from the other side he advocates programs like cap and trade that will cripple most businesses and skyrocket energy costs.
Obama did not characterize his proposals as another stimulus program, like the $787 billion version passed earlier this year, but Republican critics have called it just that and have said it will increase a federal deficit that is already at a record level.
Sharp barbs for GOP
Obama included sharp criticism for Republicans in his speech, accusing them of opposing economic stimulus efforts and his health care overhaul while supporting tax cuts and spending that have ballooned the deficit.
This is one of the most insulting statements to recently escape Obama’s mouth. The republicans are certainly not blameless in this fiasco but Obama’s first year spending alone is enough to make a drunken sailor look frugal. Republicans may have ballooned the deficit but Obama has flat busted it.
He said that soon after taking office, he and congressional Democrats took "a series of difficult steps" to try to stabilize the financial system and pull the economy out of a deep recession.
"And we were forced to take those steps largely without the help of an opposition party which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that led to the crisis, decided to hand it to others to solve."
This discounts, disingenuously, the fact that Republicans have offered alternatives to each and every proposal forwarded by liberals. The fact is this administration has an agenda. They have no intention of squandering majorities in the House and Senate.
Obama did not say how much his proposals would cost, although congressional Democrats are eyeing a $70 billion package to help create jobs and to provide aid to hard-pressed state and local governments. Administration aides suggested that the part of the package dealing with roads, bridges and other infrastructure could total about $50 billion.
If it could not be done with $787 billion what difference is another $70 billions going to make? This is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to fund a few more items on the liberal wish list.
While acknowledging increasing concerns in Congress and among the public over the nation's growing debt, Obama said critics present a "false choice" between paying down deficits and investing in job creation and economic growth.
It is not a false choice as characterized by Obama. The truth is that sooner or later all of this debt will have to be paid. Sooner or later inflation will rear its ugly head and derail any burgeoning recovery. Sooner or later taxes will have to be raised to cover the spending short falls.
The federal budget is no different, except in size, than your household budget. The average person can survive on credit (deficit spending) for a while; but eventually all those bills and interest payments are going to sap every penny of discretionary spending and then critical spending. We are, as a nation, quickly approaching that tipping point. If Obama continues to spend as if the treasury were a bottomless pit our economy will collapse.
To pay for the new programs, the administration is citing the Treasury Department's report on Monday that it expects to get back $200 billion in taxpayer-approved bank bailout funds faster than expected.
Obama suggested this windfall would both help the government spend money on job creation while also paying down the nation's $12 trillion debt.
We should all cringe when the government refers to taxpayer money as a government “windfall”. This is our money and it should be returned to those who earned it; not those who would squander it
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