Posted on 06/12/2012 4:04:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
"The private sector is doing fine," President Barack Obama declared Friday at a news conference that was supposed to show that the administration knows how to make the economy stronger.
It was a bad way to end a tough week. Wisconsin voters had rejected a recall of their Republican governor, and Bill Clinton had praised Mitt Romney's business record as "sterling" and called for a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts. Then Obama made himself sound like GOP Sen. John McCain, who in September 2008 stink-bombed his election prospects by saying, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Team Romney gleefully jumped on the "doing fine" quote as proof that Obama doesn't appreciate the plight of the unemployed. The campaign produced a video that asked, "Has there ever been a president so out of touch with the middle class?"
Obama was ill-served by 24-hour cable news shows that like to dwell on and distort what politicians say rather than what they do. He was not saying that the economy is hunky-dory.
But in saying that the private sector is doing just fine and citing the corporate sector's "record profits," the president was playing to a frequent far-left gripe -- that the private sector is sitting on cash instead of hiring more workers.
In essence, then, Obama's remarks served as an admission that he cannot do much of anything about the creation of private jobs but can only help government workers laid off as local and state tax revenues dry up.
Chad Stone, chief economist of the nonpartisan but left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, agrees with the president that private-sector employment has grown while a huge drop in public-sector jobs -- some 502,000 -- is "unprecedented." As Stone put it, "the problem is not that the private sector doesn't have the money to expand, but it doesn't have the demand for goods and services. They don't have enough customers." Public-sector jobs mean customers.
Here's the problem. Even if you recognize that public-sector job losses cannot be good for the recovery -- if America indeed still is in a recovery -- you cannot help but notice that the president has given up on the private sector, which bankrolls the public sector.
He won't recognize that Obamacare, with its many mandates, serves as a tax on job creation. He doesn't understand how his calls for balancing the budget on the backs of the affluent might chill investment.
"You're not going to invest not knowing what the tax code is the next year," observed House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy sees a solution to the situation. Clinton and former Obama economic adviser Larry Summers have suggested that Washington extend the Bush tax cuts temporarily in order to prevent a slowdown. "You would have the biggest stimulus with no money being borrowed," McCarthy told me, and the president could promise tax reform next year -- if he's re-elected.
But it won't happen, because Obama puts all his energy not into fixing the economy but into raising campaign funds and blaming Republicans. "The president," McCarthy sighed, "he's done legislating."
May the O rot for his commie/anti christian crapola
I read it twice... I KNOW that obamao is a communist and so is his little lapdog economist that was quoted... the one that works for the communist think tank... but I think little debbie that wrote the article loves her some marx too.
LLS
There never was a “recovery”. The claims by the BLS and other govt agencies are smoke and mirrors. We are still in recession st best. Lies, all lies, to support Obama.
But it won't happen, because Obama puts all his energy not into fixing the economy but into raising campaign funds and blaming Republicans.”
Obama was very adamant that he would NOT sign a Bush tax cut extension that didn't raise taxes on those making 250K+.
He is pandering to his moonbat base and would rather drag the whole RAT party down with him than to follow the few in the party with common sense.
He has already lost the teamsters union by refusing to sign the keystone pipeline bill, and pissed off the public sector moonbats by not going to Wisconsin.
I hope he sticks to his plan and makes the McGovern landslide loss look like a close call.
He could approve the Keystone pipeline. He could tell Congress to allow repatriation of foreign corporate profits at a lowered tax rate. He could rescind Sarbanes Oxley and Dodd-Frank. He could lower capital gains taxes. He could make permanent the Bush tax cuts. He could rescind Obamacare, no wait, the Supreme Court's going to do that.
He's not going to do any of that, is he?
I’m not spending an unnecessary dime until Zer0 is gone. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
——Even if you recognize that public-sector job losses cannot be good for the recovery -——
Ok, I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.
Transferring resources from the voluntary-exchange sector to the command economy NEVER improves the economy, and rarely serves the common good, the exceptions being the military, infrastructure, etc.
And you can pretty well guess where he's at w/ the coal miners despite what that @sshat Trumka (who was once theoretically a miner) has to say.
Yeah, just like Bush promised to do in 2004 during the re-election season. That sure was nice of him to do that for us...
President Bush kept his promises. Taxes were reduced. And it’s President Bush, not just Bush
And it’s President Bush, not just Bush
Spare me.
BLM lands and no way no how will they lift the logging ban, we need to save the spotted owl don't you know. Meanwhile over half a million birds many of them protected raptors are being slaughtered by his green windmills, less than five hundred miles away.
No timber jobs, no mill jobs, no money in Oregon. Oh, and Karl Rove and Joe Trippi put Oregon in the toss up column yesterday, WOW!
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