Posted on 07/26/2011 4:43:31 AM PDT by IbJensen
The president will be condemned by history for a U.S. credit rating collapse
President Barack Obama’s record on the debt crisis hasn’t been a profile in courage. On Monday night, as he spoke from the White House East Room, the president stood exactly where he was at the beginning of debt negotiations: detached, alone, and an outsider.
For those of us who have watched the torturous day-to-day descent of this crisis, the president’s detachment and absence have been obvious. On Monday, Politico’s Glenn Thrush reported: “Obama was barely visible for much of the weekend.”
As the president faced the nation on Monday evening, he knew his economic legacy was on the line. Historians will judge him for his economic stewardship.
The assessment will not be good. Going deep into his presidential term, he presides over a country that suffers from high unemployment, record home foreclosures, and a no-growth economy. But when the most pivotal issue of our decade emerged — a $16.8 trillion debt crisis — where was the “Obama plan”?
The sad truth is there is no Obama plan and there never has been a plan. The president gingerly approached the debt crisis as he has approached other issues: intellectually, coolly, passively, and with great detachment.
What terrifies President Obama now and has animated him in the last week is that he could be the first president to preside over a national default.
Politico’s Thrush identified this key vulnerability on Sunday when he wrote:
Can anyone envision a more devastating line than “Barack Obama, the man who lost America’s AAA credit rating — and brought you 9 percent unemployment”?
In April the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s estimated that the federal deficit problem was severe enough to downgrade the U.S. credit outlook to “negative.” Last week it further warned that even a stopgap deficit reduction plan could still result in a downgrade from AAA to AA.
On July 15, John Chambers, S&P’s chairman, explained in an interview with Reuters that a small agreement would not be enough. “If you get a small agreement, that will lead to a downgrade,” he said. He said the downgrade could come as early as October of this year.
The president’s response to the crisis? His proposals have been handled as if they were some kind of state secret. No one, including most members of Congress listening to his speech on Monday night, knows his actual proposal.
Certainly there are plenty of plans, including Senator McConnell’s plan, the famous “Gang of Six” plan, the “Cut, Cap and Balance” Act passed by the House, and even a joint Senator McConnell-Senator Reid plan. On Monday night, the president casually supported elements of Senator Reid’s plan, but he rejected its central feature that called for a waiver of new taxes.
None of the plans being debated today have the imprimatur of the Oval Office. At a moment when presidential leadership is so vital, President Obama has been passive. Passivity also was the hallmark of his approach to his other signature blockbuster initiatives: the TARP bailout, ObamaCare, and the financial services initiatives.
This of course makes perfect political sense for Obama. The only currency here in Washington is political currency. In Washington, make-believe numbers over dollars and cents are the tradition of both parties.
So as a stalemate approaches, the only question of substance is: Who lost America’s credit rating? The president can answer that Congress did, or the Tea Party did, or Speaker Boehner did. But the truth is there is only one president of the United States. There is only one national leader. And at the end of the day that’s how he will be judged.
There is also the overt politicization of the debt crisis. In February, the president coyly asked to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion through 2013. The timing was not an accident. It was designed to allow the credit limit to expire after the next presidential election. Clearly there also was the stink of politics behind the timetable.
Economists have estimated that if our indebtedness continues on its current glide path, the debt ceiling will balloon to $26 trillion by 2020, or 100% of our gross national product.
Presidential leadership is essential at a moment of high peril.
Certainly high unemployment, a disastrous housing market, and a stagnant economy are national tragedies that occurred on the president’s watch. But these economic woes may be footnotes in the face of a debt-swollen government that ultimately kills American creditworthiness and long-term prosperity.
I wonder if obama will be held accountable by the MSM and historians.
Sat. night we're going to a graduation party, and some people in our extended family still agree with everything obama does. It's discouraging how stupid some people are.
Congress makes the laws.
This pseudo-president breaks the laws.
“O” is utterly ignorant of even the most basal rudiments of finance and economics.
He is insensible to the fact that American workers are at the saturation point on taxation and that they feel exploited and coerced!!
So… “O” is immoveable in his conviction that U.S. workers ARE and MUST REMAIN the mindless, spineless, long-suffering and infinitely renewable ‘cash cow’ for ALL/ANY Liberal vote-getting, minority-pandering and anti-American programs they can dream up!!!
It is hard to blame him totally for this notion about American taxpayers because it has been a long time in the making and both parties had a hand in generating this kind of view.
“O” has egoistically exploited this idea like NO ONE before!!
ENOUGH!!!
??? obama held accountable by msm????
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the way I hear it, it is recognized they’re up to their necks in it with him!
“...The American people will then take out their vengeance on the political establishment and the main stream media. We will demand justice and the truth.
The Democratic Party will collapse and its leaders will be tried and sent to prison. Many Republicans will follow them...”
But what an orator this neurotic is.
Boehner is right about trying to do a deal with Jello Man, who keeps changing his mind because he has no principles.
As for calling for “shared sacrifice,” he has given up two weekends of golf.
The wise Obama has surrounded himself with the cream of America’s crop of thinkers. He has schooled himself over his short lifetime with military and economic strategies.
It’s now time to call an end to America’s suicidal experiment: electing a completely unknown negro (known only perhaps to the denizens who run Illinois from their bastion in Chicago’s sewer system) just to see what would happen.
Okay. We’ve now the answer and it’s not pleasant; but just think how unbiased the American electorate is. Many of us were willing to commit economic suicide by sacrificing our freedom and our nation to prove that you don’t have to know who the person is until you vote them into office. Rather like the sage Pelosi remarked about the most evil and heavy of legislation that had to be passed so we’d know what it was all about.
Leftist textbook purveyors and those who edit and assemble them into a fashion that suits them will probably make the Obozo chapter the largest.
Illinois will take down its motto: ‘Land of Lincoln’ and supplant it with ‘Land of Obama’. Many mini-mosques will be built at the side of roadside rests so that muslims visiting the state will have a proper place to worship.
For the rest of us we’ll be deliriously happy that the worst chapter in this nation’s history will come to a close and we can spend the next 25 years trying to cleanse our nation of the Obama stain.
Take Back AMERICA!
FUBO GTFO 2012 !
0bama has muddled the process with his “leadership” and negotiating.
As a leader in this crisis he needed to state the goal to congress and then let them hash out the details. Instead he got overly involved trying to control the process...which is an over-reach of his branch of government.
Progressives must control every step...it is how they advance their agenda. Micro-managing...very un-American.
What else would you expect from someone who spent his legislative career voting "Present"?
Disagree. This isn't good cop, bad cop. Obama and the Dems, the most radical legislators ever to run Congress, passed their Marxist, transformative agenda during Obama's first two years. With overwhelming majorities in both the Senate and the House, there was no talk of compromise or balance when passing Obamacare and the huge Porkulus bill.
The 2010 midterms have eliminated almost all of the "moderate" Dems and now we are left with the real hardcore ideologues. They have not passed a budget bill in over 800 days. They understand that the welfare state is imploding, but they would rather try to keep it going a little while longer by spending even more money on these failed programs even if it means draconian cuts to defense. Guns vs butter has been the battle fought before in socialist countries and butter wins every time. And they continue to pull the class warfare card calling for more taxes on the "rich."
Obama and the Dems in Congress are on the same page. They orchestrate their efforts. There is no division between them. Obama's leadership style is to appear to be above the fray thus insulating him from failure so he can blame someone else and taking credit when things go well. He follows the Saul Alinsky playbook.
I really believe Obama wants a crisis. He needs something to blame for his failed policies to get this country back on the road to recovery. He really isn't interested in a deal because he believes that the Reps will be blamed similar to what happened under Clinton and the government shutdown. I think he is operating under an illusion because these are different times and circumstances. Here is hoping the Reps don't go any more wobbly than they are now.
*They* continue to deny the Laffer Curve.
And that's a corollary to another historical fact. You can't get more than 20% of the national income. The benefit of earning more breaks down.
I think I heard Rush yesterday say that even Reagan, along with a number of his Hollywood colleagues would only do one movie or so a year, since additional income was taxed at 90%. (Well, that's better that The Beatles giving up 19 of 20 to the taxman...)
Throw in Jindal's story about complaining to BHO about shutting down the Gulf oil industry, saying people want to work, and BHO's retort about the idled workers can "collect unemployment", and to restate the obvious, BHO is a clueless moron, especially about wealth creation. Heck, he's clueless about work in general, let alone real, productive, useful, and most of all, wealth producing, work.
The strain is showing in his face; not that I delight in his squirming. If he does preside over a default; I think he and Michelle will still head out for Martha’s Vineyard for yet another vacation. - It’s always his way or the highway; it was on Obamacare, looks like on this situation, too. He’s butted up against the Tea Party Republicans and others in Congress who see clearly what they’re up against with him; and they’re not likely to back down. - He seems to want to be a dictator, with absolutely no checks on him. Meantime, we’re up against it. Pray.
I would LOVE to see Congress agree to a settlement OVER a Zero Veto... that would be sweet!
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