Posted on 02/09/2009 10:58:05 PM PST by WheresMyBailout
President Obama appeared before a national audience Monday night to make the case for his economic stimulus plan, saying this is not your "run-of-the-mill recession."
...
Obama urged Congress "to act without delay," saying that only the federal government can break the "vicious cycle" gripping the U.S. economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
President Obama appeared before a national audience Monday night to make the case for his economic stimulus plan, saying this is not your "run-of-the-mill recession."
He's right. Your "run-of-the-mill" recession is worse. The unemployment rate of 4 of the last 5 recessions had had a higher unemployment rate than we have currently.
President Obama urged Congress "to act without delay" on his economic stimulus plan.
Again, I agree with the President. Congress needs to always act without delay, if by acting we obviously mean fulfilling the Article I obligations of the Constitution as a separate branch of government.
The president stressed the urgency of passing the roughly $838 billion measure, which his administration and Democratic leaders say will help pull the U.S. economy out of its current skid.
Not that there exists any historical or empirical evidence that this will actually work, but if the party chairman says his five-year plan will work ...
"My bottom line is to make sure that we are saving or creating 4 million jobs, we are making sure that the financial system is working again, that homeowners are getting some relief," he said in his first prime time news conference.
America need only lose 141 million jobs to "save" 4 million jobs. As Rosie the Riveter says: "We can do it!"
Obama's remarks came the day before the Senate votes on its version of the stimulus bill. The House passed its version of the stimulus bill nearly two weeks ago -- without a single Republican vote. If the measure passes the Senate, the two chambers will have to reconcile the differences between the two bills.
No Republican votes? Who said the President wasn't a uniter?
Obama urged Congress "to act without delay," saying that only the federal government can break the "vicious cycle" gripping the U.S. economy.
The vicious cycle theory, eh? We really need an Obamanomics textbook to keep up with this economic Einstein.
"It is absolutely true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector," he said.
Obama: He was for the government creating jobs, before he was against it.
"But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life."
This is America we're talking about, not Zimbabwe.
Obama said the plan was "not perfect," but would create up to 4 million new jobs.
Wanting an almost a trillion dollar plan to be perfect? ... Who do these guys think they are! ... I thought racism was over.
The president said 90 percent of those jobs would be generated by the private sector, a rebuttal of some conservative critics who say the plan amounts to little more than a government jobs bill.
Let's go with the President's logic for a moment. If 90% of the 4 millions jobs are created by the private sector, that means 400,000 jobs will be created by the public sector. With an $836 billion stimulus plan, that's $2,090,000 per job. Where do I sign up!
Much of the package involves infrastructure spending, long-term energy projects and aid to cash-strapped state and local government. The president predicted that with his plan, the country would see significant improvement starting next year.
At $2,090,000 a job, I hope we see significant improvement starting next year. Stephon Marbury is still under contract, right?
Republicans opposed to the plan say it includes too much wasteful spending and won't stimulate the economy. Obama insisted he has been consulting with GOP lawmakers on the plan.
So Obama consulted with 187 House Republicans and not even one said yes? Gary Coleman has better success than that!
The campaign arm of Senate Republicans wasted little time Monday night calling into question Obama's commitment to bipartisanship.
B-B-But Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama! (remember ... that guy that went to the UN and said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction ...)
Even before the news conference came to a close, National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh released a statement saying, "President Obama promised change and bipartisanship in Washington, but that's not what Americans have witnessed in the crafting of this gargantuan spending bill.
It may take longer than one year, longer than one term, for us to become the next Zimbabwe!
"Despite his rhetoric tonight, President Obama cannot possibly be proud of the final result -- a bloated, trillion dollar spending bill crafted in a partisan manner that represents the same wasteful Washington spending and will fall on the shoulders of future generations."
When you make assumptions, you make an ass out of me.
Obama said that when it comes to fiscal responsibility, "it's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they've presided over a doubling of the national debt."
I didn't think President Bush ever came out against the stimulus. Unless you're talking about FDR?
Obama also addressed a broader argument -- that the government should not be trying to fix the problem.
I think that argument was called the Cold War.
"You have some people, very sincere, who philosophically just think the government has no business interfering in the marketplace. And, in fact, there are several who've suggested that FDR was wrong to interfere back in the New Deal. They're fighting battles that I thought were resolved a pretty long time ago," he said.
I thought it was too ... in the 1970s.
The president said most economists "almost unanimously" recognize the government needs to play a role in jump-starting the economy.
Pssssst ... the Cato Institute and the Wall Street Journal don't employ real economists ...
Obama said he was "absolutely confident" the country's economic problems can be solved, "but it's going to require us to take some significant, important steps."
Step 1: Pork ... Step 2: More Pork ... and we all thought Obama was a Muslim!
Obama pointed to Japan to back up his claim that without action, the recession could become permanent.
I guess Japan lowering their interest rate to 0, racking up a debt 150% of their GDP, encouraging banks to make risky loans, and was propping up zombie corporations and banks is not taking action.
"We saw this happen in Japan in the 1990s, where they did not act boldly and swiftly enough and, as a consequence, they suffered what was called the lost decade, where essentially, for the entire '90s, they did not see any significant economic growth."
What Japan did seemed pretty stupid bold to me.
The Obama administration says the plan will spur job creation and long-term growth by:
Rahm Emanuel did not write these on a napkin one day!
Obama road-tested his message about the plan Monday in Elkhart, Indiana.
He is planning a second campaign-style swing Tuesday, heading to Fort Myers, Florida, another city wrestling with double-digit unemployment.
Polls show the public is split over the stimulus plan. A slight majority, 54 percent, favors the bill; 45 percent are opposed, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday.
The president wants the final bill on his desk by Presidents Day, which is next Monday.
As Obama pushes for the stimulus plan, his administration also has been planning a separate financial stability plan for the second half of the $700 billion financial bailout program.
So the "stimulus" is really over 1.5 trillion dollars? And that's not even including the AIG bailout that Obama chastised Biden for opposing.
"Clear oversight" will be required for the remaining funds, Obama said.
If you say so ...
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is scheduled to announce a substantial overhaul of the bailout Tuesday. The program, launched by the Bush administration, has come under fire for its lack of transparency.
Of course, trust a tax cheat who was the President of the New York Federal Reserve (the same Federal Reserve that raised the fed funds rate from 1% to 5.25% in less than 2 years and then wondered why people were defaulting on their mortgages) ... (Did Greenspan or Geithner learn anything from the S&L crisis?)
While the economy was the focus of the news conference, Obama also fielded questions on foreign policy.
On Iran, he said the United States is looking for opportunities for "face to face" dialogue after nearly three decades without diplomatic ties, but still has "deep concerns" about Tehran's actions.
He said Afghanistan "is going to be a big challenge," and that his administration would have to work "smartly and effectively" to prevent al Qaeda safe-havens in the region. He said he had no timetable for how long that would take.
Obama took questions from 13 different reporters in his first prime time news conference. Eight questions were about the economy, three were about foreign policy and one was about creating a truth and reconciliation committee to investigate the Bush administration.
Unless we're talking about investigating Dr. Gates, it's the Obama administration now we should be having truth and reconciliation from.
One of my favorite Obama quotes from yesterday:
“bottom line number one.”
Did you notice that None of the Elkhart plants offers a camper that would run on Propane or CNG? They are stuck in the Gasoline or Diesel ONLY mindset.
of course its not a run of the mill recession.
Its a unique historic opportunity to impoverish America and use that as a reason to impose socialism
Not if he can help it, it won’t be.
Good parse. The road to hell...
This is a political power grab and has nothing to do with our economy. It is an opportunity, not a crisis.
Are you implying that the economy isn’t actually all that bad and that doing nothing will be the best thing?
George W. Bush learned this the hard way, with his steel tariffs, that saved a few jobs in the steel producing industry, but cost many, many more in the industries that required steel.
I had a cold last week.
I couldn’t go to work.
I couldn’t go out and have a good time doing anything.
And it wasn’t bad enough for me to go to the hospital.
All I could do— all I needed to do— was sit home, watch TV and sip hot beverages and broth.
Now I’m at work and planning to do something extra fun this weekend.
Sometimes, “Nothing” is the best prescription.
sometimes poison is the cure too...or so I’ve heard.
Actually, I read it, start to finish. I wanted to find the most wasteful spending as well as the "best" items, where the good ones would be those that created immediate jobs worth having. The worst was easy to find by skimming the package, but I had issues with finding anything worth doing. Finally, I read the entire thing, and even though I didn't expect much, I was surprised that I couldn't find even one line item worth funding by the standard of "stimulus".
Not only have the two Jon's met, but yesterday at LAX “Hollywood Favreau” claimed the other one was a “nice kid.”
So the real question...
‘so obama is like a chicago politician marxist playing the role of actor then? memorizing lines like an actor does so he can put on a show.’
Bob the Builder has used Yes We Can for Years. You let celebrities, media, corruption, money, and greed make this choice for you. Oh, and an unfounded “guilt” for America's shameful past also played its role in this election process.
Neither of these two clowns created the “Yes, We Can” motto. Obama’s writer stole it from the original Spanish version “Si Se Puede” which was created and used by the Mexican-American union activist Cesar Chavez. Let's not be fooled by the cleverness and outright copyright thievery that I am starting to catch among some of these pseudo-famous “writers”. source: tmz
What I am stating is that the political solution, masked as a government lead financial solution, is not the best and is a cause for the continued “crisis”.
To date it has not helped, banks still don’t lend, GM/Chrysler are still bankrupt or soon will be, etc. We have history to guide us and it will not help.
We are in a government caused and created recession. If you were to do anything you’d remove the bullet from the patient - de-regulation & reduced taxation (hopefully combined with spending cuts - fat chance).
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