(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Now that the “Plouffe You, You Dirty Effing Bedwetter Brigade” has taken over the public communications again for the Obama administration, we are treated to the Trial Balloon of the State of the Union address, which says the President wants a 3 year spending freeze which would exempt the Pentagon, Veterans affairs, and Homeland Security. Of course, the senior Administration official spoke anonymously.
link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
I don’t think this is a good idea.
Just in case I was having a bout of alternate unpragmatic netosphere universal misunderstanding, I peaked at the highly respected Chicago writer and Democratic activist icebergslim’s twitter feed, http://twitter.com/icebergslim… and saw this:
Obama Embraces Hooverism with a link to this at GOS:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…
Which has the first sentence:
There are no words to describe how disasterous this news is from TPM
Which has now been frontpaged over at GOS. Somehow the author has not been flogged nor auto banned yet.
Phew. I always worry for the ones that they haven’t taken out back and handed a shovel to dig with, yet.
from the HuffPo link
The president’s latest rollout of ideas served as a preview of his prime-time State of the Union address. The economic elements of that speech will also cover Obama’s plans to boost job creation and reduce swelling budget deficits — areas of concern to the public.
Obama’s address will outline his second-year agenda across a spectrum of issues, including tighter rules on Wall Street behavior and a push for financial discipline in Washington. He also is expected to touch on the issue of gays in the military.
In an interview Monday, Obama defended his agenda and said he would not support only smaller issues that avoid controversy. “I will not slow down in terms going after the big problems,” he told ABC News.
The story also goes on to say that Obama wishes to give more tax credits (that’s also known as increasing the deficit….. ) for child care for middle class families, and telling employers to offer employees IRA savings accounts, and allegedly offering money to people to care for elderly parents.
So, my advice to you, the unemployed of America, all 15 million to 30 million of you, official or off the grid, is to sign up for those Training Centers for Day Care workers as soon as possible. Since the average yearly salary for day care workers is about $27,274 a year, you should be in chicken and dumplings real soon.
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…. of course, they only wish I had such low self esteem that I’d be willing to take the blame for this clusterfrack.
If you freeze government spending at its present level, there is no further stimulus from increased government spending for the next 3 years (except in militarism, spying on us, and vet’s care). How does that not contract the economy in this period? And if the economy is contracting, how on earth does he think this is going to spur increased investment, or increased hiring, or increased consumer spending? Is this an attempt to crash the economy?
Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick!
Yeah, freeze spending except for the one thing that got us into this fucking mess in the first fucking place!
And let me guess, they’re not going to rescind the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy?
This isn’t just madness, it’s gibbering, cackling, country killing mental ward shit.
On the back is the statement;
Now in hindsight…
but of course I wouldn’t limit them to “non-defense” budgets.
The problem is this:
1. We have, over the past 30 years, increased the federal debt to about 12 trillion.
2. At this point, there are few buyers for our debt, and interest rates are 0-0.25% for institutional borrowers.
3. Which leaves quantitative easing as a method to fuel these debts (around two trillion, just last year alone.) Quantitative easing means essentially that the Fed must print money ex nihilo to buy Treasuries and other assets.
4. All of these cheap dollars have helped to weaken our currency, which encourages investors invest them in equities, commodities, and especially emerging markets. If they held these dollars, they would be losing money, and domestic investment is still seen as fraught with risk.
5. This has, as if by centrifugal force, slung money away from the American economy, or, at least away from small businesses that could create jobs.
8. This is the “mother of all carry trades” that Roubini has written about here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com…
see also:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/2…
We should probably stop feeding this beast.
Of course, at a cost savings of $250 billion over ten years, this freeze is really just chump change, but the principle may be correct.
I had been saying I was waiting for the SOTU to see if MA had woken up the administration. Well, I got my answer. The woke up on the RIGHT side of the bed.
Game over.
what Obama is doing anymore, because whenever I think about it, it leads me to the inevitable conclusion that he’s a huge phony and not nearly as progressive as he’s presented himself to be.
He was right about one thing, we ARE the change we seek. We sure as fuck aren’t going to get any of it from him.
Let’s put aside the dumbass idea of scaling back on government spending when people aren’t spending anything (oh except for WAR) for a second.
This freeze would fuck with very popular domestic programs. The NYT today said that the National Park Service would take a hit.
The NPS? Now?
Okay, let’s fuck with one of the most wildly popular and successful government agencies that provides free or low cost recreation at a time when PEOPLE HAVE NO MONEY. A service that provides jobs to people in myriad fields. A service that freaking embodies the populist spirit of the United States.
Everyone loves the national parks and now this president who has a self described “communication problem” thinks it would be a good idea to scale back on money for the NPS when it already is in trouble during a time when he is being seen as out of touch with the people?
This guy is either dumber than a box of nails or is some sort of republican built Manchurian candidate designed to destroy the democratic party for twenty years.
The worst part will be that people will still claim him to be a “liberal”, “socialist” or “communist”.
This president is further right than George H W Bush.
Actually,
I dont really need a pony, however, it would be nice if the people I elected into office wouldn’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining. Maybe that’s too much to ask, eh?
I guess this is what he meant when he said he was going to “fight” for me???
Maybe “fight” for me actually means “f-ck” me, possible?
Under the New Deal from 1933 to 1937, the unemployment rate dropped from 25% to 10% and GDP growth averaged 13.0%.
FDR made the mistake of listening to the Republican deficit hawks and cut spending by 10% in 1937. The result? The GDP dropped by 3%.
Obama’s acceptance of advice from his sworn enemies makes about as much sense as a football team allowing the opposing coach to call their plays.
I think it’s much worse than I ever thought. With Emanual, Geithner and Obama, they just wait for the tugs and dance to the tune. I recommend reading the definitions of Democracy in Websters. There’s not much more to add.
for a man with such great respect for political history it is truly stunning to watch this administration unfold this way.
And to think he had a mind of his own? Clearly, I was the dummy first. But he sold tickets like nobody’s business.
A first rate act to make it all the way to the White House, not as a show remind you, but the actual president himself. Can you believe that? He actually could have been the Sarah Palin doll, and nobody would have noticed after a year’s run on Pennsylvanica Ave.