Free Republic

President Obama’s speech this past week should have been labeled, “Believe what I say, not what I do.” All too much of the speech was devoid of reality. At one point he said, “And I agree there are some rules and regulations that put an unnecessary burden on businesses at a time when they can least afford it. That’s why I ordered a review of all government regulations. So far, we’ve identified over 500 reforms, which will save billions of dollars over the next few years.” The reality is far different. There are thousands of new regulations that have either...

Like Queequeg in the 1851 novel Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, President Obama began building his own coffin with his “American Jobs Bill” speech last night. None of his proposals will spur growth in the private sector and I believe he knows it and simply doesn’t care. As long as the economy continues to tank and America continues to lose influence in the world, he’ll be happy to begin his campaign now and blame Republicans in every speech for not getting on board, even though I’m sure they will support many of his proposals like 1) the extension of unemployment...

President Obama’s widely anticipated speech before a joint session of Congress on Thursday stunned and amazed his erstwhile political opponents. “Until I heard it from his own lips I never realized how mistaken the GOP plans to tear up all the roads and burn down all the schools were,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va). “And now that I know the President’s jobs plan is endorsed by the Teamsters’ Jimmy Hoffa and the AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka, well, let’s just say that my eyes have really been opened.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) admitted that he was skeptical at...

A presidential address before a joint session of Congress is a very big deal -- the political equivalent of opening night at the Met and the final game of the World Series, all rolled into one. Thursday night lacked both the drama of the former and the excitement of the latter. It quickly reached the heights of mediocrity, and then fell as sharply as the president’s own approval ratings. Preceded by months of teasers and fanfare, the people of the United States anticipated something of real magnitude and vision. Finally we would hear a program to restore jobs, heal the...

The era of oversold economic policy actions — stimulus spending, jobs programs, quantitative easing, infrastructure extravaganzas — may finally be winding down. President Barack Obama’s over-hyped jobs program, after weeks of pre-speech anticipation, landed Thursday night looking like the last gasp of an American economic experiment that’s running out of steam. Whether the new Obama program will be followed by actual job growth is irrelevant. Economists and political hacks will spend a decade trying to figure out which new job was or was not created by which initiative. By then, the world will have moved on and the Obama jobs...

Obama's jobs speech was reminiscent of a cliché scene in cowboy movies. A loud mouth guy stands on the steps of the jail-house and enrages the crowd to overrule the sheriff, drag out the prisoner and hang him without a trial. Obama used his bully pulpit to say, in essence, if those Republican S.O. Bs do not pass my jobs bill immediately without review, they should be politically lynched. Unquestionably, Obama's speech had a bully edge to it. Pass my jobs bill NOW!Obama lied about all of the freebies in his jobs bill being “paid for” just as he did...

The White House just put out the list for President Obama's jobs-focused address this evening. Those who will be in the gallery with first lady Michelle Obama include: — Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric. He's chairman of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. So look for Obama to again stress the importance of technology, research and development. — Steve Case, who co-founded America Online and is, the White House says, "one of America's most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists." He fills the "American can-do/entrepreneurial spirit" slot. — Darline Miller, CEO of Permac Industries, a Minnesota company that makes "precision...

At one time, opposition parties had to demand air time for responses to presidential speeches given to joint sessions of Congress. Those mainly consisted of State of the Union rebuttals, because Presidents don’t normally ask for joint sessions except to speak on matters of high moment, such as declaration of wars or celebrating the end of them. Now, however, the rebuttal speech has become such a pro forma event that a waiver sends a message all its own (via the Drudge Report): Boehner spokesman Mike Steel said Obama’s proposals on Thursday “will rise or fall on their own merits,” suggesting...

Everyone sould know by now that Zero will be addressing a joint session of congress (and the nation through the lapdog media who hang on his every word like it were a golden nugget) on Thursday (before the NFL game) to give us his "jobs program". You know, the one that's only 35 months late. This is surely another meanifestation of "Hope'N'Change(TM)". I put it out to the Freepers assembled here: What do you think will be in this grand plan that will put America back to work? My predictions: 1) A minimum of $100 billion dollars in deficit spending....

This week, as President Obama prepares for a big jobs speech (yet again!), even his partisans have begun to lose hope that he’s going to have any new or effective ideas about how to create jobs in America’s stalled economy. But one thing is certain: Whatever he says, it will be cloaked in euphemism. There’s an old cliché insisting that fuzzy speaking means fuzzy thinking. Somehow, however, the Obama Administration has managed to turn the aphorism on its head. The President and his supporters resort to the use of euphemisms not because their thinking is fuzzy, but because they believe...

Sen. Jim DeMint vowed Wednesday to try to block President Barack Obama from addressing a joint session of Congress on the same day as a Republican presidential debate next week. Obama could learn something from the GOP, DeMint reasoned, in adding his voice — and his vote — to a growing chorus of Republican objections. “The president should pick another night. I’m planning to watch the Republican primary debate … and the president should watch it, too,” The iconic South Carolina conservative said. “If he has a jobs proposal, put it in writing, give us a cost estimate, and send...

A good example of where President Obama's mind is focused can be shown by his recent "jobs", speech given on January 22. (SHORT VIDEO)