During remarks in Portland, Maine, on Friday, President Obama said, “We won’t win the race for new jobs and new businesses and middle-class security if we cling to this same old, worn-out, tired ‘you’re on your own’ economics that the other side is peddling. It was tried in the decades before the Great Depression. It didn’t work then. It was tried in the last decade. It didn’t work. You know, the idea you would keep on doing the same thing over and over again, even though it’s been proven not to work. That’s a sign of madness.”
You might think that a man who is on track to have the worst jobs record of any president in the modern era and is presiding over the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression — not to mention the first credit rating downgrade in American history, the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression, chronic unemployment that is worse than the Great Depression, a housing crisis that is worse than the Great Depression, a standard of living for Americans that has fallen further and more steeply than at any time since the government began recording it five decades ago, and a record increase in the number of people who are in poverty — would be a little more careful when it came to lecturing the rest of us when it comes to what works in economics.
You might even say it was a sign of madness.
> You might even say it was a sign of madness. n n nOr, alternatively, you might say Wehner's boss George W. Bush deserves a significant share of the blame too. n nOpinion polls do suggest a majority of voters understand on whose watch the global depression started. n n nMARCU$ n nMARCU$
or alternatrely we might remember that Obama threw an unprecedent, dangerous level of debt after the problem and barely moved the needle and has now set the nation on the path to financial ruin. btw the ovewhelming majority of voters realize George Bush is gone. That kool-aid won't work.
Bush's last budget was 1.2 trillion in debt, not counting the 2 trillion he wasted in Iraq (not to mention the 4400 US lives). Conservatives are expert revisionists. Debt happens in a depression. Get over it.
Bush Derangement Syndrome strikes down another poor victim. Bush's last budget (2009) was $1.2 Trillion in debt BECAUSE OBAMA LARDED $800 BILLION more in "stimulus" onto it. n nAnd in doing so, should have discovered that not all spending is equal. When you spend wastefully — like on solar companies that go bankrupt — you have diverted resources — labor, capital, funding — from projects that actually produce jobs and wealth. Debt doesn't just happen in a Depression, not even the Obama one. Someone has to cause it. And in Obama's case, he has made it worse. n nLiberals are inexpert revisionists. Get over it.
Uh…OK…how did Obama do ANYTHING to Bush's budget when Obama wasn't even President in 2008 (Bush's last budget was 2009)?? Do you READ what you write? Did Obama invent a time machine, go back and singlehandedly revise Bush's budget?? Yes, debt happens in a depression. If you can find a depression when this DIDN'T happen, you be sure and let me know! So know we have the right wing 'back to the future' view of Obama!
OK…but let's remember…a President (of either party) cannot force business to make good decisions. But, Congress, with the power to make laws, can. n nSo, how 'bout we talk about Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and what roles they may have played in the economic meltdown…Hmmmmmm?
Apples vs. oranges … does anyone seriously think there would've been less pain and suffering in 2009-11 if Obama had decided to drastically cut government spending on e.g. helping the unemployed??? Or what about suddenly slashing government payments to contractors by 30% to balance the budget? This is madness, folks! Until Obama became president, even right wingers approved of budget deficits if you're in a recession (this is what Reagan did after all!). n nTo me, the Bush deficits are far harder to accept as he deliberately slashed taxes while at the same time spending more on expensive military adventures abroad. n nNobody denies the deficit problem needs to be solved, but this can only be done once the recession is over. n nMARCU$
Yep. Remember Dick "Deficits don't matter" Cheney…who, now, after all these long years, finally has a heart.
nMarcus, you are a socialist, therefore you must shut up and go away. Nothing any socialist has to say is worth spit. n nObama is a socialist, therefore he must shut up and go away. Nothing any socialist has to say is worth spit. n n nAll of you must shut up and go away. Nothing any socialist has to say is worth spit.
Talk about madness. Bush Derangement Syndrome is the leading indicator.
Results, not excuses. n nYour president is a failure, which is fortunate because he is also a profoundly evil racist hate-monger.
But then Obama fixed everything. Oh wait. He has not done a thing except blame Bush. And demonstrated an ignorance in history, Constitutional Law, economics, and science that is absolutely astounding and an indictment on affirmative action and the effects of prolonged drug usage on cogitation.
.Under Bush, things were OK until the last two years when the demorats got control of. congress. Things went downhill after that like now..
The recession started in 2007, before the Democratic congress had a chance to do anything. The real cause was the rapid rise, in 10 years, of Credit Default Swaps that, under right wing deregulation, went from 320 BILLION to SIXTY TWO TRILLION dollars, more than the GDP of the entire planet. But, hey…why not blame Obama…and blame him for Pompeii while you're at it.
He of course will depend on the MSM re-writing history to fit his new narrative …
The winner takes all dogma of our TEAgop is a fool's mission and our President knows this and speaks of it. Bully for him.
I retired two years ago after spending most of my career owning and operating five small (successful) business, all of which were start-ups. When I hear the president speak so knowledgeably about business and the economy, I'm awestruck that this man, our president, knows everything…and understands nothing.
clever little acronymns won't work anymore. "Tea baggers" didn't work either. Callng the Supreme Court the TEACourt won't work either after it tosses out that mandate.
Ah, America…where the SCOTUS says billionaires can buy the political process under 'free speech', and that has NO effect on society…but you can't say F**K on TV because that will cause society to collapse. And, of course, the middle class can't get healthcare. We have the best govt money can buy.
Are you insane? Or just a moron.
My guess is both…
More specifically, it is a sign of narcissism. Are you aware of any time when our president resisted the temptation to blame others and assumed the blame for anything which has gone wrong under his watch?
What was GDP when he took office?
annual GDP in 2008 14,200.3 (in billions); n2011: 14,526: n nbut you'd also want to look at the debt to GDP levels and they are rising rising
This is the first president in our history who is a grifter.
The insane things Obama gets away with saying is a sign that the Republican candidates who can't win the nomination either need to quit so that the Republican candidate can start pounding on Obama … or they need to stop attacking each other and start making the case against Obama. Santorum, for instance, shouldn't just bash Romney as being unable to attack Obama on Obamacare, but he should atttack Obama on Obamacare right now and maybe explain what should be done. Obama is the issue!
Let's see. We have the most bloated, least efficient, costliest healthcare in the world. Yet conservatives think that failure is a success. This is Orwellian. Every other country has done what we have FAILED to do: provide universal, cost effective healthcare. Any reason you're proud of THAT version of "American exceptionalism"?
Our healthcare is also by far the best in the world — that only the rich people in the countries you're talking about can afford to come to America to get while the "cost effective" procedures you're referring to with such praise pretty much amount to take an aspirin and go die! And, yeah, a lot of the cost is in equipment and hospitals where you can get an operation without going on the waiting list and I, for one, don't think we should cut those costs. But, tort reform on medical malpractice lawsuits, getting rid of hundreds of thousands of overpaid impossible-to-fire government employees running Medicare and Medicaid and utilizing the price controls of free enterprise competition (see the Ryan plan) could bring down the costs to something the richest nation will be able to continue to afford (so we do not become one of those worthless socialized medicine countries you think we should be).
If Malignant Narcissism is madness – Zero is mad. What we have here is singular focus on himself.
Conservatives think Obama was responsible for the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the Civil War. The fact is this crisis was a long time in the making, it was due to fundamentalist libertarian assumptions (which were wrong) pushed by Alan Greenspan, et al, and has little to do with Obama. I realize you guys are stroking Wall Street in spite of the fact they destroyed the economy, but some of us have longer memories than you do.
If anybody has accused Obama of bombing Pearl Harbor, you need to come forward — otherwise, we'll all assume this is another "strawman" argument and not take it seriously. I know Obama's supporters compare him to Lincoln, but I don't think I've heard them come right out and say he won the Civil War a century before he was born. They have to at least figure, we'd see that one. n nNo, sorry. Obama only has to answer for the last 3 years.
Hey Bob, go burn an American somewhere or carry an abortion on demand sign. While your at it turn in all your guns because your scared as hell of them. Ops, liberals think guns and the second amendment are foreign. Than go live with your boyfriend.
Let's see…a non-answer, NO evidence to rebut…paranoia and homophobia…all in a few short sentences! Nicely, conservatively done. n nEspecially the part about you not answering ANY of the issues
Wow, it sure is easy to press this mindless Obama-hating mob's buttons.
The WHO's ratings put a premium on universal care in their rankings. This from the Boston Globe highlights pre-Obamacare Dem propaganda: n n"The US is really three Americas. The top 10 percent here are the healthiest in the world. The middle bulk does mediocre. But it's the bottom 5 or 10 percent, made up of Native Americans living on reservations, the inner city poor, rural blacks, and Appalachia that is a third America," said Dr. Christopher Murray, WHO's director of global programs on evidence for health policy. n nThe United States, which spends a world-leading $3,700 per person on health care every year, ranks lower than its industrialized counterparts because, too often, its indisputably world-class medicine is not available to those without money. n nThe problem with Obamacare is that it didn't really address universal care on one hand, by figures being released on all the people who won't be covered, and then sets out to control costs (see IPAB) by cutting back on our "indisputably world-class medicine" by limiting what will be available to patients as determined by government bean-counters (see Ralph Nader's 50 year quest) rather than the patient's doctors. n nThe question becomes if we reduce care to what's available in socialized medicine and cover more people, but not everyone, will our ranking go up? Hurray! So, how many senior citizens do we have to drive off a cliff to be number 36 or maybe even 35 among socialists. n
As a Part 2, it doesn't make sense to conclude that the right pushes tort reform because those oposed to it are a Democrat interest group. I can only guess that your conclusion is based on being pre-disposed to think the worst of Republicans (only for the reason that they are Republicans) and that no Democrat could possibly ever do anything at all that is primarily in his/her self-interest. The issue with tort reform is that, due only to the self interest of a Dem group, the Democrats resist tort reform that would reduce the overhead of all doctors.
Yeah go figure. Good healthcare means people GET healthcare. Only in the "Alice in Wonderland" right wing view of the world does 'great' medical care mean NO medical care! And it's NOT 'socialized' medicine (Which would have been an IMPROVEMENT over "Obamacare", primarily because we can SEE IT WORKS). Obamacare WORKS THROUGH INSURANCE companies. Dunno about you, but where I come from, generally socialism does NOT include the existence of insurance companies! n nIt's meaningless to say it 'limits' what's available. EVERY healthcare system does; our does now. The fact is OUR SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK. The FACT is OTHERS do. Why is the right SO RESISTANT to EVIDENCE? n nSo the question to you is how many 10 year olds do we deny medical care to so the 98 year old with breast cancer gets 100,000 worth of medical care in her last 2 days of life? n n
Everybody gets emergency care (which is admittedly only for the at-that-moment emergency), and that does include even non-citizens, including illegal ones (which is a point of interest because not all countries give even emergency medical care to illegals). Your definition that good healthcare means people get healthcare is awfully general and meaningless. The point of WHO is that their ratings are weighted to inclusivity, but even they acknowledge "great" medical care as not being the same thing. The internet is full of horror stories of the kind of care in Canada and Great Britain and waiting lists. I don't think (at least the horror stories) automatically qualify as good healthcare. I also don't see that as EVIDENCE that their healthcare systems work and ours does not (and I am assuming by all you're saying that you are a rigid Democrat that when Obamacare was tricked through that you had no wish to improve our system in any way that would have involved both parties and actual discussion and debate on what can be achieved, but preferred the Pelosi-Reid no compromise and lie, lie, lie about costs and inclusiveness and ram it through over the will of the American people.
I also want to question your last comment. It's partially based on a false premise that you know the date someone is going to die ahead of time. I've seen several articles, including in Commentary, and which I would ask you to seek out and try to draw an honest conclusion concerning, rather than blindly use to call someone a child killer (or whatever) as if anyone who disagrees with you in the slightest way should be ashamed, that the studies measuring the effectiveness of end of life surgery specifically looked to cases where the patient died, not necessarily directly from the surgery, no, but within two years of any surgery. The problem with that premise of study is that there is no one in the study who's life was extended (because they were only looking at end of life surgeries). For instance, my grandmother, with a weak heart, had an artery fixed that was about to break (and one doctor chose not to do it due to her weak heart and the one who did the surgery did it because she would die without surgery … and she lived another 15 years. Active years. It doesn't follow, in my mind, that you must deny a senior care in order to save the life of a 10 year old.
Let's see…in less than 200 years America, a Republic, rose and became the world's leader in…Industry/Productivity, Commerce and Banking, Science, Social Justice, Agriculture, Real Estate acquisitions for those other than the very rich, Educational Advancement, Entrepreneurial Opportunities, and many other areas. Millions and millions of immigrants flocked to our shores…not because what America offers was not working, but because what we had was working so magnificently. Did they forget to listen to people like Obama who continually finds fault with our system of Capitalism and who want to institute a Socialist regime? No, they continued to prove these doom and gloom carriers totally wrong. n nObama should chose his words more wisely when he talks about who is showing "a sign of madness." There has NEVER been a successful Socialist country and Obama/Liberals/Progressives should heed the words of Winston Churchill who said: "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." n nBut, of course, Obama doesn't like the truth…he tossed out the bust of Churchill from the White House, just so he wouldn't be reminded of Churchill's wisdom. Since day one, Obama has been continually trying to dismantle this country from our Constitution on down. He does not care about the people, or our status, or productivity…he only wants our dependency on the government while the power to control the masses will rest with a few privileged friends of the dictator. Just as other dictatorships have always wanted.