Posted on 05/14/2010 5:24:35 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Voters fed up with spendthrift Obama
May 14, 2010
STEVE HUNTLEY shuntley.cst@gmail.com
Passage of the massive health-care overhaul was supposed to repair the sagging political fortunes of President Obama, Congress and the Democrats. It didn't. That's not just because of the unpopularity of ObamaCare, though certainly it's a factor. No, there's something more fundamental at work.
In 2008, America awoke from a binge of profligate borrowing, notably in housing, with a pounding economic hangover that brought the country to the brink of depression. The lesson was clear: We have to live within our means.
This is a lesson that Washington has ignored. Yes, deficit spending has to be a part of government's response to a recession. But the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress have thrown caution to the wind by throwing money every which way, inundating the country in red ink.
The rescue of the big banks, justified by the necessity of preventing financial collapse, morphed into saving General Motors and Chrysler, spending billions of the taxpayers' dollars for the expediency of protecting union jobs.
That was just the start. Next came the stimulus bill. Besides failing to save or create enough jobs to keep unemployment below 8 percent, it also cost more than advertised. The $787 billion price tag soared to $862 billion, and the jobless rate is at 9.9 percent.
Then, during economic hard times, Obama and the Democrats rammed through Congress a new health entitlement and bragged the biggest expansion of government in four decades would save money. Americans aren't buying it -- 63 percent think ObamaCare is likely to increase the deficit, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll. With good reason. This week the Congressional Budget Office reported the health-care overhaul law provides for discretionary spending that will add $115 billion to its cost, pushing its 10-year cost to more than $1 trillion.
Other inconvenient reports found ObamaCare increasing national health-care spending by nearly a third of a trillion dollars over the decade, threatening private health insurance for millions of retirees, and hiring thousands of IRS agents to police its mandates.
We're learning that not only do banks fail -- so can countries. A European financial crisis has erupted over tiny Greece spending beyond its means, threatening to damage Europe's economy and to spread across the Atlantic.
Greece's debt stands at 124 percent of its gross domestic product. The figure for U.S. government debt is 92.6 percent of GDP. The trillion-dollar annual deficits Obama is running means it could breach 100 percent soon. No one expects America to end up like Greece -- our economy is too big and the dollar is still the world's currency. But Americans using common sense conclude government spending is out of control and threatens their well-being.
Obama ran for president as a centrist, and Americans elected him to fix the economy. Instead, he's governed to the left, pushing cherished liberal goals like health care and the costs be damned.
Polls pointing to Republican gains in November don't find enthusiasm for the GOP as much as distress with Obama policies. An event this week suggests further cause of the public's unease. An executive wrote Obama saying he had said false things about her firm. Chief Executive Angela Braly said his claim that WellPoint Inc. systematically drops insurance coverage of woman diagnosed with breast cancer "grossly misrepresents" the facts.
Obama campaigned to end the nation's bitter, cynical politics. As Braly's letter suggests, he's done nothing of the kind. He has pushed a blatantly partisan agenda, employed emotionally charged populist rhetoric in attacking industries such as health insurers and finance, and stooped to personal attacks against political opponents like Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
While personally popular, Obama's policies and the tone of his governance are out of touch with what the American people want in these troubled times.
Comment at suntimes.com.
goldman sachs trying to save chicago scumbank!!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703950804575242772016889464.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular
Excellent article and chart!
“ran as a centrist”.
Did this loser even hear what he said to Joe the Plumber?????
Anyone with half a brain and paying attention for about 30 seconds could see this guy was a Marxist from the get-go.
I just hope enough people wake up to repudiate him and his ilk thoroughly in 2010 and 2012. He needs to be shamed and reviled and die penniless in some cardboard box. Don’t other countries force their disgraced leaders to flee to exile somewhere? I’m sure Kenya would love to have him back!!!
Did this loser even hear what he said to Joe the Plumber?????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gm3VM-1bXw
What’s up with the upward blue dotted line for 2010-2011?
That poll is from 2009 and also a Gallup poll. I believe of the major pollsters, they have consistently been on the high side for Obama favorability.
Whatever. I heard on one show this morning that his approval ratings were over 50%. I really don’t care what they are - I still hate him and he is doing his best to destroy America and the Republicans are allowing it. I am glad I’m old and won’t be around to see the total destruction.
I hate that this Keynesian idea is now conventional wisdom. No, deficit spending does not need to be part of government's response to a recession. This concept is really not that complicated, though economists try to make it so. Government spending comes from one of three places:
1 Taxes. We can all agree raising taxes and leaving people with less money in their pockets to spend is not a good idea in a recession.
2. Print it. Hey, government runs the printing presses a little overtime, and voila, more money. Except for inflation, which is also not a good idea in a recession.
3. Borrow it. Also known as "deficit spending". Well, we don't have it now, but we can pay it back later when times are good and we're not in a recession. Ignoring the fact that we don't pay it back, it still doesn't work that way. There is a finite amount of surplus funds available to be lent. When government borrows money to spend, there is less capital available for private business to borrow. Either private businesses and individuals don't borrow the money to expand or make purchases or they do so at a higher price.
No extra spending is created. Keynesians argue that GDP consists of all spending, private and public, so if government spending increases, then GDP goes up. However, government has increased its spending at the cost of private spending, either by taking it directly from the public in taxes, by decreased purchasing power via inflation, or by increasing the cost and decreasing the availabiltiy of capital by borrowing. In other words, there is no such thing as a free lunch, even if you borrow the money for it.
Didn’t Daly come out and say Obama needed to govern from the center?
Obama has been in office for almost a year and a half. His second 100 days passed a long time ago.
I don’t believe it. The only concern for the urban masses of Rat detritus is free pie and more and more of it.
They control the cities, they control America.
Do you trust Google?
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