Posted on 07/07/2012 6:14:31 AM PDT by no dems
Obama needed a filet mignon in the June employment report. But instead he got a rubber chicken.
Only 80,000 new jobs were created last month, way below Wall Street expectations. It’s the fourth consecutive monthly disappointment. For a few months last winter, jobs were rising at an average of 225,000 a month. But that has sloped way down to only 75,000. The unemployment rate continues at 8.2 percent, which is the forty-first straight month above 8 percent. The U6 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers, is just under 15 percent.
As voters finalize their election impressions this summer, all of this is bad news for the Chicago incumbent.
In a campaign stop in Ohio on Friday, Obama actually said we’re still “heading in the right direction.” Is he kidding? As a stagnant GDP drops below 2 percent, employment falters, retail sales decline, and the ISM index for manufacturing drops below 50 (signaling contraction)? No objective observer can deny that the economy is headed in the wrong direction.
I don’t like playing the pessimist, but the numbers are the numbers. This is exactly what former Clinton advisers James Carville, Doug Schoen, and Stanley Greenberg have been warning Obama about. People just don’t believe the economy is getting better. So he’s gotta change his message.
But what change? Taxing rich people won’t create jobs. Neither will bashing Bain Capital. Obama is surrounded by leftist campaign advisers. And it’s hard to see them shifting gears to something constructive like making a summer deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for a year, or heaven forbid backing off the 20-some-odd tax hikes embodied in Obamacare.
In other words, Obama’s goose may already be cooked.
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC), spearheaded by Texas congressman Kevin Brady, put out a report saying that the Obama recovery now ranks dead last in modern times. That’s a real milestone in the post-WWII era. It’s ten out of ten for both jobs and economic growth. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, real GDP has expanded only 6.7 percent over the eleven-quarter recovery since the recession ended. The Reagan recovery at the same stage had increased by 17.6 percent. The Clinton recovery by 8.7 percent.
As for jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of private-sector jobs has grown by only 4.1 percent since the cyclical low point. Reagan’s record was 10.7 percent.
So much for Obamanomics. Didn’t work. Still isn’t working. As the JEC put it, spending stimulus, housing bailouts, auto bailouts, financial bailouts, cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, and $5 trillion in deficit spending left the Obama recovery dead last in modern times.
Whatever happened to the great boom of the ’80s and ’90s, when the animal spirits were strong and the American economy wasn’t held hostage by Europe or China? In an odd twist, both Obama and his top economist Alan Krueger blame “problems built up over decades.” Does that mean they blame Clinton? Reagan?
For nearly 25 years -- during those bad old decades -- the economy increased 3.3 percent annually. Unemployment dropped from 11 percent to 6 percent to 5 percent to below 4 percent. Obama would swoon for numbers like that. But those statistics come from the era when big government was over, when pro-market forces stopped the expansion of Leviathan, and when marginal tax rates were slashed to grow the economy.
Now the question is, with Obama’s economic goose cooked, does Mitt Romney have what it takes to win the election and provide a pro-growth economic model that will restore prosperity at home and America’s number-one position around the world?
Some powerful figures -- including Rupert Murdoch, Jack Welch, and even my brothers and sisters at the Wall Street Journal editorial page -- have taken shots at Romney in recent days. But I am more optimistic. In response to his critics on the day of the bad June jobs report, Romney talked about expanding energy resources, approving the Keystone pipeline, cutting taxes, and increasing trade with Latin America. He reaffirmed his intention to cut federal spending and eliminate programs.
Basically, Romney is promising a return to free-market, supply-side policies on taxes, trade, regulation, and spending. Hopefully he will embrace a sound and stable dollar as well. I still believe Romney is the most underrated politician in America today, and that he’s the most conservative Republican standard bearer since Ronald Reagan.
I agree except that much of what you describe is due to government mandates. Insurance companies cover things that you may not want because of government (state) mandates.
The EMTALA mandate forces emergency rooms to accept people regardless of their ability to pay. This was passed during Reagan’s term.
Buying medicines from other countries that are cheaper is illegal due to US law.
I’d like to hear Romney say that they tried the insurance mandate in Massachusetts and it isn’t working. It should be rolled back because it’s becoming evident that the health care industry needs less government involvement, not more. But, I have no idea whether people such as independents would accept that or not. Certainly the left would jump on a comment like that big time.
I can't; 'cause you didn't.
Basically, Romney is promising...
You are very right, self-identifying as a conservative does not make you one. As I like to say I can call myself an Eagle but my 250 plus pound body will never fly. You can go to any Moose Or Elks club anywhere and you won’t see a member with antlers.
It is amazing how those who are pushing socialism on us will never admit to being socialists while those who proudly call themselves conservatives often are not. Sometimes the socialists call themselves conservatives, some have even tried to say that Obama is conservative.
We need new names, the old ones don’t mean much. It really comes down to whether you believe in freedom or you don’t, only a very small percentage of Americans really believe in true freedom. Most don’t understand that the only basic human rights that really exist are those that can be exercised by one lone individual if he or she is the last person left alive on the Earth. Not only do you not have a right to have health care furnished at no cost you don’t even have a right to BUY health care no matter how much money you may have. You only have a right to buy what someone else is willing to provide at the price you are ready to pay. Yet we have imbeciles screaming that health care is a “basic human right”.
“Yet we have imbeciles screaming that health care is a “basic human right”.”
If we dissect that statement - what appeals to the masses about ‘free health care’ (and what the media and the socialists know) is that simple minded people believe that ‘free health care’ equals good health. It’s not about the money. I think the general, ‘take care of me’ population, actually believes that “FREE” Health Insurance means they will be healthy and “FREE” of disease. No one’s life will be saved because you tax people for ‘free’.
In conversations with fellow citizens, most don’t understand they will be paying for the ‘free’ care. They also don’t understand they will have less freedom to choose what care they recieve. The media and socialists understand how to play these word games. Liars always have the advantage in advertising because they liars with a media guard know they will never be called on their lies.
The government is offering “FREE” Healh Insurance not “FREE” Health Care. And it’s not FREE. But you can’t explain that to simple minded people. Americans are no longer the resilient, independent, frontier folk they used to be. Today’s average citizen is a weak, snivelling, whining, baby. Too cowardly to fight a war, win a war, or take care of their own families. Already the media theme of the day is that while conservatives still want to repeal, the undecided, independant voters have decided they can live with ObamaCare. And it’s time to mooove on.
Romney can’t articulate what we want to hear because Romney is all about business and money. If he believed in ‘America’ we’d be hearing him speak the right words.
I don’t know why Romney wants to be president. I really don’t. My sense is he’s protecting money for the finance industry. Nothing about Romney says he has a clue how the average citizen lives. Part of Clintons ‘charm’ was that he grew up like a lot of Americans did. He pulled himself up from a rocky start. Obamas narrative was cleaned up for the citizens but people think Obama was like Clinton in that way - but he wasn’t. Obama did not grow up American.
What’s Romneys goal? What’s his vision for America? Who does he think Americans are? What is good about America? I betcha he couldn’t answer those questions without a focus group. Everything about him feels managed and forced.
Your post #166 is absolutely on target, Carmody. Excellent job. Bullseye. Thanks.
Romney is an American. Romney believes in America. Bambi isn’t and doesn’t.
Thank you for a nice response. Makes me proud of Texas, even though I don’t live there. I wish.
When will the media and political experts start using the term Neo-Comm for Obama’s advisers? These hacks are using all means of tricks to make redistribution of wealth and confiscation seem normal.
Romney is an American. Romney believes in America. Bambi isn’t and doesn’t
After Mitt banned assault weapons, pushed for underage abortions without parental consent, legalized gay marriage, appointed liberal judges and raised the corporate tax 3 times the question isn’t whether Mitt Romney believes in America...
the question is, WHAT AMERICA DOES HE BELIEVE IN?
sorry satan, forgot to use “” marks.
All I am basically saying is that our government is too far gone to be fixed, and when you have a corrupt unconstitutional government on this scale you aren't ever going to change things significantly within that system. It's time to start looking for alternative solutions which our founding fathers gave us the right to do under these circumstances.
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