What Has Obama Done to Help the Economy?

[Adam]

Oh I think we could find several million people that disagree with you.

Come on Chef- when have I cared that millions disagree with me. I'm a Bills fan, after all

[dayman]

So far this (a move of questionable ethics and legality at best) is the only move by Obama anyone has thrown out to defend Obama's work on the economy. That's just sad. No wonder all I keep hearing about are tax returns. Obama's got nothing.

 

 

Don't you think your question is basically absurd? It seems first off that smart people, people with PHDs and Nobel Prizes can't even agree on the past, let alone what will work in the future. Most of them agree that to do nothing would have been disastrous so that is just absurd IMO. So nobody, not Obama, not Romney, not George Bush (who now has a book out now about how to obtain 4% growth lol) has the magic solution. It's just not true (contrary to what the Romney campaign would have you believe...he ain't the magic man).

 

The general idea that the stimulus didn't help...or the bailout sucked...you can pull articles from wherever you want...people like the bailout...and a lot of people think the stimulus helped and could have helped much more if it was larger.

 

The most important thing to note is there is disagreement and anyone can pull anything they want from any source and just say "see, see" and the discussion just gets bogged down. It's great to talk about and important for the country to work out and be informed about to vote...but anyone that thinks they "know what's up" is just not realizing they don't and nobody does.

 

But that's all pre-2010...you know before every single bill of any meaningful note is all the sudden filibustered and obstructed. Before Congress became crazy and started doing nothing but working against the President and itself. Before we insisted on cuts cuts cuts, while still in trouble. Maybe you think that is wise? That really is fair enough, but a lot of other people didn't...and pointing to this is not really excuses or pointing fingers or crying. People who say that just don't understand government. Washington broke down, b/c politicians refused to cooperate.

 

Congress is huge as to what has gone on with the recovery. Are you asking what has Congress done? What has that body's contribution been? Personally, I wouldn't validate anybody on either side of the isle in Congress this next election who isn't trumpeting cooperation and breaking gridlock in the next election w/ my vote. B/c that's crippling the country. What has John Boehner done for the country? Boehner can't keep his own loony Tea Party GOP freshman in line in the House and Obama is supposed to be able lead the Tea Party and the rest of the recently-more-conservatized GOP?

 

These people are basically the Joker (to be like Rush for a moment) sent to create chaos and disrupt all the socialist free-fall-spending policies of Obama (lol yes that is a half-joke so don't go crazy). They aren't working with him...they won't even work with Boehner unless Boehner is sure to not cooperate "too much."

 

All that said, say what you want and this is where we'll probably disagree...Obama did not create or necessitate this Washington environment. This was basically the GOP being pissed that they didn't like what was happening and not handling being in the minority so they did everything they could in the house, filibustered everything they could (record numbers) in the senate, and attacked the President publicly every chance they had. That is what they did as we were coming off a legitimate !@#$ing depression. This is important. Their goal was to make him a 1 term president. And they certainly made damn sure not to cooperate in making him a success during is first term on anything they could control.

 

And all that, considering all that. Considering the dysfunction in Washington coming off the worst economic crisis since the great depression. Considering apparently Obama has a war on business and can't lead his own dick into his wife. Considering apparently the GOP radicalized and went rogue and threw a fit b/c they were in the minority and didn't like it. Considering the Democrats apparently went nuts w/ spending power while at the same time the GOP went nuts about cutting. We still...kind of...ever so slowly...failed to collapse. We still out grew Europe. We still grow in a Global Slowdown and European contraction. Every single recovery is taking longer, and longer, and longer (for reasons outside the scope of this post)...and this one is not exception and it follows a different sort of dip...and damn cliff drop.

 

Considering all this taken together and having an actual realistic outlook on what happened, where we are, where the global economy is, and where we can ACTUALLY go/expect to be and how quickly we can do it...I assert to you that we're not actually doing that terrible. We're not doing well enough to be happy, I'll give you that nobody is. But we aren't dying. No policies for sure would have had us in a better spot (certainly IMO austerity or cuts or nothing during the fall would have had us worse but that's just my opinion). And the real thing to remember is...we had limited policies enacted anyway b/c we went into political gridlock. So the idea that the economy is just SOOOOO terrible...it's overblown. It's nothing to toot your horn about...and sure it's nothing really "to run on" I'll give Romney that. That's true. But it's not the disaster in my eyes everyone thinks it is all things considered.

 

To sum up...I simply ask what the hell are you talking about when you ask "what has Obama done?" Have you been paying attention? What the hell has anyone done, what the hell has happened, where are we, what do you expect, what would you have had him do? What policies could anyone have pushed, passed, and watched heal us all so magically that you condeme Obama for not adopting over the last 3.5 year?

 

Anyway I don't mean that to discount the question (all though it does lol I can't help but be a dick I know)...I'm just saying that represents why I generally just don't like this "Economy not great, Obama what has he done? Elect Romney magic solution man."

 

Just my opinion I'm sure I'm just making excuses or naive or retarded of blah blah...but I would like to hear all you guys opinion on my opinion.

Edited July 18, 2012 by TheNewBills

[IDBillzFan]

Don't you think your question is basically absurd?

Is there any chance you used to post here under the name FakeFatSunny or BarryBrady?

[Chef Jim]

"Recked"?

 

 

!@#$ing idiot.

 

Hey I don't get many of those from you. Though it was well deserved I do feel honored.

[/dev/null]

So Bush recked it but the government fixes it. Ok, I get it.

 

"Recked"?

 

 

!@#$ing idiot.

Hey I don't get many of those from you. Though it was well deserved I do feel honored.

 

So the doctor says, Rectum? It damn near killed him!

[Rob's House]

Don't you think your question is basically absurd?

Is that why you didn't answer it? In a previous thread I said the economy would likely be in better shape had Obama done nothing. you said you strongly disagreed. Thus far you've presented nothing other than a poli-sci thesis on cooperation in Washington. I disagree with many points in your thesis, but those are beyond the scope of this discussion. And I don't care do defer to authority based on the Nobel prize (which carries about as much weight these days as an ESPY) or PhDs (many of whom are overeducated twits and/or hyper-partisan ideologues), but rather I defer to reason, and reason (as well as the overwhelming majority of the economic community, but mostly reason) recognizes that the stimulus didn't do ****, and was more likely counterproductive.

 

So I ask, again, what has Obama (or the government under Obama) done to fix this economy that is preferable to doing nothing? (And don't say TARP; that passed under Bush)

[Nanker]

Is there any chance you used to post here under the name FakeFatSunny or BarryBrady?

 

Actually, I think that would be OCinBuffalo. The writing styles are very similar.

[B-Large]

So Bush recked it but the government fixes it. Ok, I get it.

 

you've just won a scholarship to the "Derrick Zoolander Center for People Who Can't Spell Good"

 

 

Congrats

[IDBillzFan]

Actually, I think that would be OCinBuffalo. The writing styles are very similar.

Not enough emoticons to be OC.

[Park]

Those free trade agreements he pushed through congress are good economic policy, and he actually stood up to people in his own party to get those done, something a Republican would never do

[Nanker]

Jack ****. That's what he's done for the economy. It's like Clinton trumpeting the NAFTA deal as a cornerstone of his economic policy. Now the left's base decry that as the single greatest high-wage-paying job killer to ever come down the park pike. They want their cheap goods at Walmart - but hate Walmart for supplying goods more cheaply than their favorite mom and pop store could.

[Nanker]

Not enough emoticons to be OC.

 

True that. However, that might be an obfuscation.

[IDBillzFan]

Speaking of Obama's Economy...another stimulus-backed solar company bankrupt.

 

Fortunately this one only got $21M, but it's in North Las Vegas, which recently declared a fiscal emergency and has a ton of problems. I wonder if Harry Reid will go back and apologize?

[Nanker]

Reid is in that unique place - above apologizing and beneath contempt.

[GG]

Those free trade agreements he pushed through congress are good economic policy, and he actually stood up to people in his own party to get those done, something a Republican would never do

 

Exactly which trade agreements he pushed through?

[DC Tom]

Exactly which trade agreements he pushed through?

 

Uhh...health care. Yes, health care. The exchanges are a trade agreement. Yes, they are. Yes, they are! Just shut up! I CAN'T HEAR YOU NA NA NA NA NA NA!!!!!

[B-Man]

President Obama's jobs panel missing in action

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 7/18/12

 

President Barack Obama’s Jobs Council hasn’t met publicly for six months, even as the issue of job creation dominates the 2012 election.

 

Politico

 

 

Carney On Why Jobs Council Hasn't Met In Six Months: Obama Has "A Lot On His Plate"

 

Real Clear Politics

 

 

Romney Pounces on Six-Month Lapse in Obama Jobs Council Meetings

The GOP candidate thanks small-business owners for supportive signs that may have come from his campaign.

By Sarah Huisenga

July 18, 2012 | 5:41 p.m.

 

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – A fired-up Mitt Romney enlisted small-business owners at a town hall on Wednesday in his reenergized offensive against President Obama, arguing that Obama is so disinterested in job creation that he hasn’t met with his jobs council for six months.

 

“You know what he's been doing over the last six months?" Romney asked in a crowded gymnasium at a community center here. “In the last six months he has held 100 fundraisers. And guess how many meetings he has had with his jobs council? None. Zero. Zero in the last six months.”

 

National Journal

Edited July 18, 2012 by B-Man

[Doc]

LOL! "A lot on his plate?" Is that "plate" as in "dinner plate," like at one of his fundraisers? Like what kept him from speaking to his black supporters and instead sending his lackey?

[B-Man]

Hmmmmmm.

 

A new poll by McClatchey/Marist finds that most Americans — including those on the low end of the income spectrum — favor keeping the Bush tax cuts in place for all Americans. According to the poll, 52 percent of registered voters say they want all of these tax cuts extended, including those for incomes above $250,000. 43 percent want the cuts extended just for incomes below that threshhold.

 

 

Poll: Majority want tax cuts for all, even the wealthy

 

By David Goldstein | McClatchy Newspapers

 

WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans want the Bush tax cuts extended for everyone, despite a strong push by President Barack Obama to eliminate them on higher incomes, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

 

The poll found 52 percent of registered voters saying they want all the tax cuts extended, including the tax cuts for incomes above $250,000, while 43 percent want the cuts extended just for incomes below that threshhold.

 

All of the tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. Republicans want to extend them all. Obama wants to continue only those on income below $250,000 annually, and he vows to veto any move by Congress that would continue the higher-end tax cuts.

 

“The money we’re spending on these tax cuts for the wealthy is a major driver of our deficit," he said last week as he worked to make it a major issue in his re-election campaign.

 

Yet some of the strongest support for extending all of the tax cuts came from some of Obama’s most reliable supporters, such as young voters, minorities and the poor and working class.

 

Young voters ages 18-29 favored tax cuts for everyone by a margin of 69-29, the largest margin of any age group.

 

Latinos favored tax cuts for all incomes by 62 percent to 36 percent. Whites supported tax cuts for every income by 50 percent to 44 percent. African-Americans split, 48 percent for limiting the tax cuts to incomes below $250,000 and 47 percent for extending them to all incomes.

 

 

Time to call someone's bluff

 

.

[fjl2nd]

The thread's premise is flawed. It assumes the President can do whatever he wants policy wise. The fact is that the last year and a half, Congress was completely useless.

 

I believe the stimulus had a positive effect on the economy. It slowed the downturn and reversed some economic indicators. The problems was that it contained a lot of tax cuts which aren't as stimulative as direct spending by the government. It should of been bigger or more focused on spending in the right areas.

 

Dodd-Frank should have been a better bill. They dropped the ball there and the banking sector is still running amok.

 

For the last 2 years, the President should've really been pushing Congress harder to do more for the economy. I know the Republicans made it their goal to not do anything that could benefit the President, but he still has to put on the pressure. He ran on big ideas, he should have proposed more.

 

Another stimulative bill with long term reforms to SS, Medicare, and Medicaid would be so politically popular. Just do it! It wouldn't be just politically popular either - it would benefit the economy greatly!