He has only been in office for about a month and already we are starting to see his true nature. His bipartisan nature has all but disappeared. Right after apologizing for making mistakes in some of his judgment with regards to cabinet members, he showed that he is getting more and more irritated that Republicans (and some Democrats) will not hurriedly pass his stimulus, which has now grown to over $900 Billion dollars.
From telling a Republican senator that “I won, I will trump you on that” to yesterday telling people that they voted for me, not the other guy. He followed that by making fun of people (Republicans) who believe in Reaganomics (those who prefer lowering taxes rather than increasing government spending).
It is also obvious that Obama is either in denial that liberal philosophy got us into this mess, or he just doesn’t understand it.
“Now, in the past few days I’ve heard criticisms of this plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis — the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems,”
The criticisms of the stimulus is that it is full of pork and liberal pet projects and offers tax breaks to those who do not pay taxes and not enough to those who would create jobs. The thing that got us into this mess was spending more money than we have, which is exactly what he proposes as the solution to the problem.
His plan puts more burden on the government, which in turn, will be placed on the taxpayer. Giving handouts, either to banks or people, is not a long term solution.
To make things worse, a day after lecturing Republicans on the economy, he will leave for a luxury resort in Williamsburg at taxpayers expense. It is the annual House Democratic Caucus retreat. This retreat has cost the taxpayers 100,000 dollars a year for the last 5 years and this year will be no different. The chartered Amtrak train alone will cost the taxpayer $70,000. Thousands of dollars are also used for food and entertainment.
In these troubled economic times, you think they could have scaled down the event and held it in D.C or perhaps even have someone other than the taxpayer pay for their little trip to the spa. I guess that is just crazy talk. Or maybe on his first official trip as President he could hold a townhall meeting with the people he cares about (ie: as Clinton did) or visit the troops (ie: as Bush did).
Just my ideas. I think either would be better considering the situation, especially since they just chastised corporations for doing the exact same thing.
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How does a crisis caused by too much (bad) debt, get cured by issuing more (bad) debt? It seems to me, one of the first steps toward getting out of a hole, would be to stop digging.
“I can’t pay for the loan I have, so I’m going to go get another loan to pay off the first one!”
I remember someone telling me the definition of stupidity is: doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.
Am I missing something here? Or, am I naive to expect something resembling logic from our elected leaders?
Good point Daddyo. But by that logic, we are stupid for expecting different results from politicians. I feel that the libs are the worst about it however, the GOP has a history as well. I hate to throw them all in one pile like that and I would like good reasons not to but until then……
I don’t think the Democrat’s primary objective is to stimulate the economy. Most of the bill is simply a payoff to liberal interest groups for helping them win the election. It’s an attempt to consolidate power by setting up programs that will require more funding in the future.
As such, it was smart of Republicans in Congress not to go along. 3 Senators does not make it bipartisan. The Democrats own this, and so we can and will hold them accountable for the budget deficits that will result. Next they’ll insist we have to raise taxes, and there will be another battle royal.
I think this something we can win. Obama has so far shown himself to be politically inept, and if he doesn’t change soon his popularity will begin to fall.
Very true. They understand that the economy is cyclic and will recover on its own so their time is limited to get their projects in while it is perceived as a crisis.
The most damaging thing to their plan thus far was the CBO stating that Obama’s stimulus plan will damage the long term economy. They say it actually would reduce GDP growth more than if they did nothing at all.
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