Obama: US will always be a AAA-rated country despite what rating agencies say

B_VinylBoy

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Both parties have gotten us to this point.

... under completely different circumstances, which if analyzed would show that the intentions of one side were more beneficial to the country than others. The false equivalency needs to stop here. Everyone understands the need to simply blame everyone equally, but when one political party is responsible for more than 2/3rd of the debt there's no reason why we should be continually linking those with good intentions with the bad simply because there's a negative sign in the budget. Again, it's like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

But whatever... seriously, when can we start paying attention to all of the details? We're gonna need them if this nation is ever going to rebound.
 

B_lrgeggs

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Now that we are where we are, I think someone (hopefully a true non-partisan
(like myself:biggrin1:) should go back 30 years (or maybe even further) to see who in the House and Senate) are responsible for getting to where we are.
I don't think it's fair to point to the President and say that person is singularly responsibly for the economy. (Although he does appoint his cabinet) All the voting records and transcripts of hearings are there. It's just a matter of going through it..and throwing it on the wall. Just like sport figures have the records listed on the back of their picture card. So should the Folk on Capital Hill.
 

B_VinylBoy

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Now that we are where we are, I think someone (hopefully a true non-partisan
(like myself:biggrin1:) should go back 30 years (or maybe even further) to see who in the House and Senate) are responsible for getting to where we are.
I don't think it's fair to point to the President and say that person is singularly responsibly for the economy. (Although he does appoint his cabinet) All the voting records and transcripts of hearings are there. It's just a matter of going through it..and throwing it on the wall. Just like sport figures have the records listed on the back of their picture card. So should the Folk on Capital Hill.

Truer words can't be said. If we don't take the time to find out who really is responsible for this mess, we'll never solve the problem or learn from it.
 

dandelion

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Well just watch out someone does not start investigating you for unamerican activities! All that expenditure on homeland security is to stop terrorists, which by definition would include anyone threatening the government.
 

Calboner

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A good portion of blame resides at the feet of those who have been glibly willing to sit by and nod their heads when bought politicians have repeatedly made straight-faced proclamations along the lines of: "If we're going to raise the debt limit we MUST cut spending"*; or "We must cut discretionary** spending, but raising taxes on the job-creators*** would be disastrous in this economy."

Anyone who didn't challenge any of that (or all the other) bullshit shoveled by (especially) Tea Party-ers and other beholden spineless politicians has no right to do anything else but sit here and accept responsibility for this situation. It's your fault if you make no effort to discern the truth amongst a pack of lies, when that truth would have saved us from calamity. It's your fault. I blame you.


* Wedding two unrelated issues for the sake of sabotaging the lower and middle classes, as well as Obama's standing for re-election.

** "discretionary", in this instance means spending for medicaid or school lunches, but not for payments on Halliburton's outrageous guaranteed no-bid contracts.

*** Query how many jobs were created by the job creators in the years following the Bush tax cuts. I'll wait for the answers....
Like.

I also agree with those who have noted the president's exemplary display of non-leadership throughout the crisis over the debt ceiling. There was a good piece in Sunday's New York Times called "What Happened to Obama?" by Drew Westen. Here is a passage that I found particularly apt (bold type added):
Drew Westen said:
Those were the shoes — that was the historic role — that Americans elected Barack Obama to fill. The president is fond of referring to “the arc of history,” paraphrasing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But with his deep-seated aversion to conflict and his profound failure to understand bully dynamics — in which conciliation is always the wrong course of action, because bullies perceive it as weakness and just punch harder the next time — he has broken that arc and has likely bent it backward for at least a generation.
 

Thedrewbert

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Now that we are where we are, I think someone (hopefully a true non-partisan
(like myself:biggrin1:) should go back 30 years (or maybe even further) to see who in the House and Senate) are responsible for getting to where we are.
I don't think it's fair to point to the President and say that person is singularly responsibly for the economy. (Although he does appoint his cabinet) All the voting records and transcripts of hearings are there. It's just a matter of going through it..and throwing it on the wall. Just like sport figures have the records listed on the back of their picture card. So should the Folk on Capital Hill.

Reagan took a completely different mess from Carter and started the ball rolling on this one.

Tax cuts without a corresponding requirement for increase jobs/salary.
Huge defense deficit spending
Financial deregulation that has led to at least 4 crises that I can think of off the top of my head.

This lame idea that tax cuts, any tax cuts anywhere, create jobs every single time. We now have 30 years of proof that it isn't true even half the time.
 

Thedrewbert

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Good point. I still say that the tax code should be reformed for those with an income over a million, to reflect the number of jobs they create. If they create a bunch, they pay little or no tax. If they create none, pay up. Their lap dogs in Washington always say "Don't tax the job creators!" Fine. We won't. But first you have to prove to us that you actually do create jobs.

I really like this idea.
 

B_lrgeggs

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Reagan took a completely different mess from Carter and started the ball rolling on this one.

Tax cuts without a corresponding requirement for increase jobs/salary.
Huge defense deficit spending
Financial deregulation that has led to at least 4 crises that I can think of off the top of my head.

This lame idea that tax cuts, any tax cuts anywhere, create jobs every single time. We now have 30 years of proof that it isn't true even half the time.

But from what we just saw...Obama's effort in Government spending did not exactly help in creating jobs either. What is Asia doing right that the US is doing wrong? After all that is where it seems the manufacturing jobs are going.
 

D_Percy_Prettywillie

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Admittedly, Obama was a mistake. Hillary would not have taken all this shit from Republicans. Democrats (and America) need a fighter.


I'm inclined to agree. His sweeping rhetoric was inspirational but unfortunately it stopped at the waters edge. At this point I'm very fed up with being rail roaded by the fringes of the political right. The republicans are running the table. The White House has retreated or caved at every major showdown. Health care reform, the Bush era tax cuts, the budget, the debt ceiling- you name it, and it's boiled down not to getting what progressives think need to happen but just being satisfied that the Tea Party didn't get everything it wanted.

"I'm going to kick your ass."

"No, please don't."

"Alright, I'll punch your face instead."

"That's a fair compromise."

This is no way to run a country and it's certainly not what I had in mind when I campaigned and then voted for President Obama. The rational in this country need a champion of their issues, a titan for their ideals and in spite of his intelligence and grand intentions, Barack Obama is simply not that man.







JSZ
 

Thedrewbert

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But from what we just saw...Obama's effort in Government spending did not exactly help in creating jobs either. What is Asia doing right that the US is doing wrong? After all that is where it seems the manufacturing jobs are going.

Depends on which part of the stimulus you look at. The energy efficiency credits spurred huge job growth in the respective sector. Furnace factories, appliance factories, and window manufacturers/installers experienced explosive growth.

Cash 4 Clunkers (which I hate for unrelated reasons) probably kept Ford alive without needing further assistance and made the GM and Chrysler bailouts less severe (keeping jobs on all accounts). Toyota benefited, the Corolla and Camry are built in the U.S.. Honda benefited, the Civic is mostly built in the U.S.

GM and Chrysler are now both hiring a lot domestically, GM has moved production of it's small cars from Korea back to the U.S.

I don't know about your area, but in mine we have a LOT of structurally deficient bridges. All of the worst ones have now been rebuilt and they are circling back around to the bridges that had less severe issues. Pennsylvania had a lot of "shovel ready" bridge projects that it simply didn't have money to pay for, so there was a lot of jobs created there.

Have we netted out positive? No.. but without those stimulus projects, we'd be in even worse shape than we are today. There is continuing mounting evidence that the stimulus wasn't big enough, and that is because of Republican opposition.
 

B_lrgeggs

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Depends on which part of the stimulus you look at. The energy efficiency credits spurred huge job growth in the respective sector. Furnace factories, appliance factories, and window manufacturers/installers experienced explosive growth.

Cash 4 Clunkers (which I hate for unrelated reasons) probably kept Ford alive without needing further assistance and made the GM and Chrysler bailouts less severe (keeping jobs on all accounts). Toyota benefited, the Corolla and Camry are built in the U.S.. Honda benefited, the Civic is mostly built in the U.S.

GM and Chrysler are now both hiring a lot domestically, GM has moved production of it's small cars from Korea back to the U.S.

I don't know about your area, but in mine we have a LOT of structurally deficient bridges. All of the worst ones have now been rebuilt and they are circling back around to the bridges that had less severe issues. Pennsylvania had a lot of "shovel ready" bridge projects that it simply didn't have money to pay for, so there was a lot of jobs created there.

Have we netted out positive? No.. but without those stimulus projects, we'd be in even worse shape than we are today. There is continuing mounting evidence that the stimulus wasn't big enough, and that is because of Republican opposition.

I don't know how you can say that the stimulus project wasn't big enough. It reminds me of one car battery used to charge another battery till the other battery is all used up. Certainly there was a need to collect enough tax money to build safe roads and certainly its in the best interest in the US to have an up to date transportation system. So taxes will be needed to be collected for that. But it really is true that the Business of America is Business and the better the environment the better we should be. There should be Terifs from goods from foreign countries who subsidize the manufacturing of goods and a ban of goods from countries who subject their people to slave wage conditions. Of course, the black market will always exist. But such is life. (If that's doesn't work...I say send all the Politicians on Capital Hill home and lets start from scratch!!!!)