Posted on 11/16/2014 7:09:35 PM PST by scchapma1
Response to “You Americans have no idea just how good you have it with Obama”
This planet will not be the same in generations to follow the Obama administration. Let’s address some of the blatant falsehoods in the article, then address some of the glaring omissions from the record.
First, the most egregious claim would be that the unemployment rate has decreased. I think the most important part of this is to lay out how the unemployment rate is calculated, and it will be clear why simply referring to that number (5.8%) and saying everything is okay is so misleading. There are 2 big factors that are left out of the unemployment rate calculation – the first is the people who have part time jobs. That includes both people who have been bumped back to part time from full time, and people who are only able to find a part time job, despite wanting full time work. These people are included in the “employed” people group, despite the fact that they are enduring economic hardship, not being able to work in a full time job as they desire and likely need to work in to make ends meet.
The second group of people who are left out of the calculation, are those that have been unemployed for so long that they are no longer looking for work, because the economy is so bad. They are classified as “no longer in the workforce”, and are no longer counted as unemployed. Another misleading data set in this calculation, although not quite as impactful as the first 2, is the people who have more than one job. Those people are counted once for each job that they have, which skews the statistics in a significant way.
There are other points strung together that I’ll address basically the same way – the POTUS has little to no direct impact on these things, in an immediate sense. Any economic policies that are put into place will typically only start to have ripple effects in the economy 8-15 years after said policies are put into action. So the economic growth, strength of currency, stock markets, and interest rates, are the fruits of what the Bush administration put into place.
The one exception to this is inflation. We will see inflation take place right away, depending on how a government deals with budget deficits. If the government decides to print money to make up a budget deficit, you will see inflation skyrocket. But if you see a government borrow money (as Obama has), you will see little to no impact on inflation. It’s a double edged sword, you either have high inflation one way or government debt the other. Neither is a good solution, which is why both ways should be avoided. It’s no surprise we’ve seen Obama quadruple the national debt, despite promising to cut it in half during his presidential campaign in 2007-2008. A promise that of course has been completely forgotten about, and clouded over.
Another fact in the article that is now being paraded (for some strange reason) as a success of the Obama administration, is the lowering of oil prices. This “success” is full of irony, because when oil prices were sky rocketing, the Democrat line was that the POTUS does not control oil prices, it’s not his fault. Which is of course true – the POTUS does not control oil prices at all, but the implication that comes from that is that when victory is claimed for oil prices falling as some success of the Obama administration, it is at best complete ignorance of economics and history, or at worst intentional disingenuity.
And finally, lets get on to the utter falsehoods in the letter. The deficit is “rapidly declining”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more completely false (or ridiculous) statement in my life. When Obama took office, his promise was to half the national deficit – it was around $4T at the time. This claim in the letter is probably the most insane one that there is, because it’s a claim that is so easy to fact check. The national debt of the USA is now almost $18T, for those interested. Not much else needs to be said about that.
Next falsehood, and this (for me) is the most troubling falsehood. The claim that the USA is respected internationally, and that (in general) Obama’s foreign policy has been a success. I could write all day about how wrong this claim is, so I’ll just briefly touch on the main reasons that not only was his foreign policy a failure, but it has put the entire world in grave danger. First, is how Obama has put an incredible strain on the relationship between Israel and the USA. In multiple instances, he has drawn a moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas, and this has perpetuated (and even fueled) an already deep seated anti-semitism that exists across many people in Europe and North America. He has called for Israel to “show restraint” in it’s responses to terrorist attacks on it’s own soil, killing soldiers and civilians. History has never seen a country show as much care for its enemy’s civilians than what we see in Israel, yet they are called to show even more restraint against genocidal hatred and violence carried out against its people.
Second, pulling out of Iraq is the biggest mistake Obama has made in the Middle East, bar none. It has led to the creation of ISIS/ISIL, and has caused the death or displacement of such an incredibly high number of people, we may never know the full extent – both locally in the area and through terrorist attacks on the West. This is a mistake that Obama is now trying to fix, going back into Iraq to try to cripple ISIS via airstrikes, but make no mistake, this is a problem of his own making. ISIS would not exist had Obama not pulled out of Iraq.
Now onto the glaring omissions from this article. First, lets talk about the socialist style economic policies implemented by Obama. Tax hikes on corporations have already started chasing away corporations from the USA (Burger King), and will inevitably cause corporations to develop their business in other countries with lower tax regimes. We will start to see the economic effects of these policies within 8-15 years (as I mentioned earlier), at which time the USA will likely have a Republican POTUS, and likely the Republican president will get blamed for the economy tanking again.
And second omission, would be the incredible infusion of racism Obama has put back into people’s minds in the USA. It isn’t enough for Obama to simply disagree with the Republican policies, and try to have an evidence based discussion on them – he has painted the Republican party as inherently racist or bigoted, in every policy that they have. He has scared the left leaning folks in the population into thinking that voting for a Republican is akin to voting against their own interests, if you are a minority group, such as Latino or African-American, because the Republican party is completely racist and will oppress you, given the chance. He has marginalized media outlets that do not agree with his views, and penalized any organization that does not tow the line of his administration. He has threatened executive action multiple times on policy if the Republicans do not appease his demands, and has moved the USA to perhaps the most hyperpartisan condition it has ever been in.
I could write a whole book about this, but the reality is this: Barack Obama is the biggest mistake the USA has ever made. There has never been a more divisive and damaging president, and the USA may never recover from him.
If I could say just one thing to the left-leaning voters down south, it would be this:
If you don’t pull off the wool covering your eyes and vote for someone that will start to fix the damage that Obama has done, you aren’t only sacrificing the future of your children, your community, your state, or your country – you are sacrificing the future of every nation in the West that depends on the USA being a strong leader in the free world.
No pressure…but choose wisely.
The third part of the unemployment façade is the lowering of the labor participation rate, pretending that more and more people do not want to work.
Welcome to FR Scott!
Welcome Scott, and you’re article is right on the mark IMO.
LOL!
If some guy named “HumbleGunner” shows up and says you need to delete this thread or otherwise never again post from your blog, tell him to get a life.
In fact, because you are new and likely a nice guy, contact me and I will do so. I apologize in advance for the probable rude welcome he will provide. I copy him on this out of respect because I referenced him.
“There are other points strung together that I’ll address basically the same way – the POTUS has little to no direct impact on these things, in an immediate sense. Any economic policies that are put into place will typically only start to have ripple effects in the economy 8-15 years after said policies are put into action. So the economic growth, strength of currency, stock markets, and interest rates, are the fruits of what the Bush administration put into place.”
That also means that the crappy economy was Bush’s fault too, and who was to blame for the Carter economic disaster? Nixon?
I don’t agree with the point you are trying to make.
He’s confusing debt and deficit in a major way!
Canadian’s letter to Americans: ‘When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?’ (Urp!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3226448/posts
thanks for the tip :)
We were done with him a long time ago, but he’s dug-in tighter than a tick.
Compared to Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot, yes, you’re right.
Compared to any American President, we have got it pretty bad.
scchapma1 Since Nov 16, 2014
Bookmark.
It’s posted in full, not excerpted.
Seems like you are a bit confused about what is objectionable.
Perhaps in the future you should learn about things before popping off.
Obamanomics bump
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