This morning, as I pored over at least 20 pages of blogs, it was obvious that there were two main topics of discussion. One was the proposed Córdoba House Mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. The other was the economy. Both are significant. There has been so much dialogue in the media regarding Córdoba House that perhaps the second topic is worth discussing this morning.
“It’s the economy, stupid” was the phrase Bill Clinton used in 1992 against George H. W. Bush. With all due respect to the former president, we are not “stupid”. Our economy is in trouble. And it is getting exponentially worse under Obama’s watch.
- Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors published figures showing that United States residential property sales fell 27% in July. This is the weakest market in 15 years, and is reflective of the fact that foreclosures are running about 10 times higher than they were a few years ago.
- Unemployment remains around 10% with no relief in sight for the foreseeable future.
- The last two years of federal deficit has skyrocketed under the Obama administration. Some on the left, including Bill Clinton’s political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz and Nation’s Washington editor Christopher Hayes, have blamed the deficit on the Iraq war. They would be wrong. The congressional
budget office’s own graph shows that most of the deficit is unrelated to our military operations in Iraq. In fact, Obama stimulus package, which was passed in his first month in office, exceeds the entire cost of the Iraqi war.
- This week, Michael Bromwich of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has clarified that the ban on drilling for oil in the Gulf will remain in place for the foreseeable future. Bloomberg analysts estimate that this will cost over 23,000 jobs.
- The Bush tax cuts are set to expire December 31. As the Obama White House Diaries and A Hollywood Republican previously reported, the highest tax increases, as a percentage of taxes paid, will be levied on those in the lowest tax bracket.
- This morning’s real-time numbers reported on the US debt clock.org show the national debt at around $13.4 trillion, with an average debt per citizen of $43,118 and an average debt per taxpayer of $120,515.
Perhaps House Republican leader John Boehmer expressed it best with remarks delivered at Cleveland’s City Club:
“Right now, America’s employers are afraid to invest in an economy stalled by ‘stimulus’ spending and hamstrung by uncertainty. The prospect of higher taxes, stricter rules, and more regulations has employers sitting on their hands. And after the pummeling they’ve taken from Washington over the last 18 months, who can blame them?
While visiting our state last week, President Obama attended a political fundraiser in downtown Columbus. At that exact moment, just a few blocks away, hundreds of Ohioans were waiting in line at a job fair where they would learn yet again that companies aren’t hiring right now. They’re frozen.
Or, as the organizer of the job fair put it, employers are – and I’m quoting now – “scared to death.”
Scared to death.”
“President Obama should ask for – and accept – the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team, starting with Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council.”
Regardless of whether you agree with congressman Boehmer’s assessment, its fair to say that the economy is stumbling in the dark and there does not seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel. That is no surprise. But what may surprise you is the speculation by Toby Harnden of the British Times that Obama really does not care. Harnden suggests that Obama has tired of his role as President, preferring instead to pursue world politics in what could be described as a “post-American” period. That phrase attempts to define the idea that we are now living in a time in history when the United States is no longer relevant.
“Obama was elected in 2008 at an extraordinary moment in American politics. Suddenly, this charismatic figure, elected to the Senate without serious opposition in 2004 and without any executive experience, was catapulted into the White House.”
“Governing has been altogether more difficult for him and there are signs he is already tiring of it.”
“In Berlin in 2008, Obama cast himself as a “citizen of the world”. He has dismissed the bedrock notion of American exceptionalism by describing it, also in Strasbourg, as little more than narrow patriotism. Elite opinion among liberal Ivy League types – of which Obama is the embodiment – holds that we are already living in a post-American world.”
“There are few Americans who see themselves as bigger than the presidency but Obama could well be one of them.”
If Harnden’s speculation is correct, then in Obama’s mind, America really doesn’t matter. He is looking past America. He is bigger than America. That would explain a lot.
For the record, America and the US economy do matter in a politically and economically competitive world. We are not “stupid”. That will be confirmed in November.
Sources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/08/john-boehner-economy-speech-fire-obama-economic-team.html
http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/24/home-sales-plunge-27-pct-to-lowest-in-15-years/
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Little-known-fact-Obamas-failed-stimulus-program-cost-more-than-the-Iraq-war-101302919.html
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/08/24/obama-to-gulf-oil-ban-stays/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7958031/Does-Barack-Obama-want-to-be-re-elected-in-2012.html
Facebook
Twitter
Craig:
I was very surprised the other day to see the news that the stimulus bill has cost more than the Iraq war. If this is true, it would put a real damper into the arguments of many liberals regarding the costs of the war. I’m not talking about the moral issues. I’m talking about the economic issues. Would anybody like to comment?
I would have to check those stats but they very well could be true. The problem there within is “The Stimulus is over” …”The war” is far from over.
In every election and afterwords there are several types of people that seem to surface. One would be all the people that feel the right choice has been made and want to dance in the streets. Another would be those that voted the other way and don’t want to hear about it. But still another are the ones that always choose Party. Party over common sense and party over dignity and Party over just about everything else..
I am a great believer in fairness. Fairness is basically the only thing that the majority seems to want. So why is fairness so hard to determine?
This particular issue posted here is starting to fringe on fair. This Blog has been based on Republican views and often times that leaned that way even when I feel it shouldn’t.
However, it seems we are getting down to the nitty gritty here. The talk here is sensible and with facts to back it up.
Obama is not doing a good job! He just isn’t. He took on a tough job that he himself said he was fully aware of and had the answers and more importantly the plan to fix it. Enter “Yes we can.” Which has quickly transformed into “Yes you will!”
His campaign was based on “Transparency” which is now by all accounts “non-existent” His political promises were not worth breath they rode out on. As Jessie Ventura would say “He promised the World and delivered nothing.”
The bigger issue here that I post from time to time that doesn’t seem to be popular is the fact the Timothy Geithner and Obama himself as well as the Clintons and many Republicans are members of the Bilderberg Group. Talk about transparency? What goes on in those meetings should be public knowledge and you or I will never get close. The people that control the water, food, money and all aspects of banking not to mention the richest families in the world all get together and people act like its a social BBQ and look the other way? Please!
Pardon my bad spelling at times and poor punctuation…I’m multitasking here.
[...] The former Florida Congresswoman who, according to Project Vote Smart, has never held a private sector job said, “We are clearly responsible… the last year of the Bush presidency we lost 3.7 million jobs… we created a million jobs in the private sector in just the last six months, 2.1 million in the last 15 months… the manufacturing sector has had 15 straight month of growth, we rescued the American automobile industry and made sure Americans continued to have a choice about the kind of car they want to drive… If it were up to Republicans, particularly Republican candidates for President, they would’ve pushed the American car industry off a cliff and said good luck to you later… that’s 1.4 million jobs… Yeah, we own the economy.” [...]