Obama the ‘Free-Spender’? Fair Label?
EmailToday President Obama is showcasing some $17 billion in cuts to the budget. He’s cutting more than 100 programs that he feels are a waste. Keep in mind that’s less than 1 percent of the overall budget. So why is the President making the cuts and such a big deal about them? On his blog "The Numbers" ABC News polling director Gary Langer (or ‘Poobah of Polling’ as he puts it on his blog) gets into some of the background on this. You can read Gary’s entire blog here. Here’s the leading edge of it: "President Obama’s announcement today of $17 billion in budget cuts, and his pledge to shrink the record federal deficit, aim at one of his greatest potential vulnerabilities – getting tagged as a free-spender. In our latest ABC/Post poll just 51 percent of Americans said they approve of Obama’s handling of the federal budget deficit, with 43 percent disapproving. Nearly nine in 10 expressed concern about the deficit overall, with nearly six in 10 “very” concerned about it. And 53 percent said they’re not confident the government has put in place adequate controls to avoid waste and fraud in the use of stimulus funds, with 32 percent “not at all” confident vs. just 7 percent “very” confident."
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Obama’s Roosevelt-ish approach to the Presidency is just further proof he is the right man, at the right time, for the right job.
Posted by: Blindhowlin | May 7, 2009, 12:46 pm 12:46 pm
Roosevelt’s throwing around of money didn’t work. Obama should study a little more history before he brags about being like Roosevelt. WWII is actually what pulled American up. Although Some of the things that Hoover did were already helping when Roosevelt took office.
Posted by: Barbara | May 7, 2009, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
Mr. Obama is the best thing that ever happened to this Country. We need to support him in his efforts to get this country back on its feet, to get our workers employed, and to get our housing market on track. We all need to continue to support this wonderful man.
Posted by: Rose | May 7, 2009, 2:34 pm 2:34 pm
One could suppose that as to the handling of the “life-blood” at the heart of the nation’s Economy, the POTUS is quite the “hemophiliac.” :}
Posted by: Winston Middlesbrough | May 7, 2009, 4:29 pm 4:29 pm
Blindhowlin, you’re the one who needs to read more history. In fact, the country enjoyed an economic boom well after Roosevelt spent to stimulate the economy and bring about more jobs. Why do you suppose he was re-elected so many times? You’re giving us hogwash Fox-Limbaugh revisionism, which qualifies as propaganda, certainly not legitimate history. It was Hoover’s halt of spending that sent the country into the Great Depression. Go to Snopes or a real fact checker to get your facts straight.
Posted by: Igor | May 7, 2009, 6:14 pm 6:14 pm
Are you kidding me, It was a world at war and FDR that brought us out of depression in the 1940′s, but Mr. Obama hasn’t even made a move to punish Korea or Iran for their nuclear weapons programs. Is there no Patriotism left in us as a people? We need to wake up and take our country back before it is lost forever. Are we waiting for the Sum of all Fear, a nuclear missle attack on our shores. Whatever happened to the backbone of our politicians in Washington? This President gives the world the impression we are a spineless nation and he bows to an Arabian king, perhaps even kissing his hand. Let us stand together once again for freedom in the world and punish those who would try to take it from us. Let us now rid the world of Terrorism and Pirates, and strike them down where they hide, no matter what country it is. Then say to the world, you can be a partner in that freedom if you would but join us. Let us incorporate Cuba as a US territory, as we have done in Puerto Rica, and let us take back the Panama Canal that Jimmy Carter, gave away. Then we could isolate Mexico by securing their borders from both sides. We need to be more assertive, and fight the drug cartel and stop sending signals to the Arab world and the Taliban that we are weak! This is the kind of talk that used to come out of Washington when I was a boy. “When will we ever learn?” There is no Republican and no Demacrat, we are Americans first!
George E. Buttner, a Patriot…
Posted by: George E. Buttner | May 7, 2009, 6:58 pm 6:58 pm
$17 BILLION may not be much to you but it’s a hugely significant amount of money to me and yes, it does make a difference. $65 MILLION here, $45 MILLION there, $5 BIllION here and $17 BILLION there, it ALL counts and it’s adding up to a significant overall savings not to mention job creations and surges in not only Wall Street but on Main Street, energy, innovations in every direction-hey-it’s a Whole New World – we have soo many things to be grateful for lately; get off of the whine train? Obama will become known as one the the Great Ones – in spite of the Bushmen …
Posted by: sprowlindak | May 7, 2009, 7:11 pm 7:11 pm
Mr. Obama: Is doing the best job possible, considering the mess we were left with. I love Bill Clinton (regardless of his past) that’s between him and his wife. He was great for our country and his love for it shows. Mr. Obama is a decent human being who dearly loves this country and the people and genuinly cares.He does for love of country. Which is more than the Bush administration can say. (both of them) Right or wrong he doing the best job he can with hopefully the best people. I have lived in this country since 1978 and became a citizen in 1985. I have always voted and worked hard, raised my girls to the best of my abilty. Now I have been unemployed since Feb of 08. This is the longest that I have been unemployed since I started work at age 15 in Scotland.
I have never seen this country in such bad shape and I hope that I never see it again. May I never see another republican president as long as I live.
They are out for themselves,the rich get richer, and working class pay the taxes. I blame Bush and the republican party for the mess this country is in.
Posted by: Morag | May 7, 2009, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
As a Republican, who was around during the depression, it ticks me off to read
that it was the war that brought us out.
Hoover, like Bush, had no idea of what he was doing and caused the entire world to plunge deeper into a mess. FDR was the man of the hour, who unlike Obama, was fortunate enough to get a totally new congress, instead of being
plagued with a, “know nothing, do nothing” bunch of left over obstructionists as we have now. IF FDR had not reversed the situation BEFORE the war started, we would not have had the manufacturing capacity to switch so quickly into filling the needs of our troops and, most likely would be seeing a different form of government today.
The notion that Hoover and WWII brought
us out, is sheer propaganda. FDR was
overwhelmingly reelected for a total of
four terms, dying just a few months after his last term started. He was the right man for the time then and President Obama is the right man for the massive problems facing this
nation today. Currently, the problem with my party, seems to be that it doesn’t learn from history; certainly not of the party, or the country or the world. Instead it wants the easy way out, by appealing to a select few, with
personal agendas and to the 34% of the educationally challenged; by revising the events of yesterday,fear mongering, mud raking, lies, and intimidation. Kind of like the Nazis did in the 1930s. They need to wake up, realize that their methods are a disaster for the entire nation and the world. Then, find a way to work with this President and his party. Just as we once did, before the partisanship became so belligerent.
Posted by: gringovejo | May 8, 2009, 9:10 am 9:10 am
First I must agree with you FDR was a great President, and the right man for the job during the great depression, and during the great WWII. But you must remember Americans were more supportive of their President, the Americans of that time had a backbone and stood proud and shoulder to shoulder with their fellow American.
Now we live in a new era “Lets blame the other guy for our problems” Its easy to blame Bush and yea you can blame some of the problems on some decision his cabinet made.
But if you think that Obmama is the answer to Americas problems you are going to be sadly dissapointed. Throwing money at the problem is a quick fix, but after the money is spent then what? Spend some more? All this money where is it coming from? And when it’s spent and gone who is going to pay for it? My Grandchildren will have to pay for a package, that they didn’t even spend.
Posted by: JR. | May 8, 2009, 11:03 am 11:03 am
bravo, gringovejo. It amazes me how little patience some Americans have with Obama, and yet they sat through 8 years of stupidity with hardly a whimper. The man has been in office 7 MONTHS, and fear-mongers are already shrieking doomsday (I suspect a lot of it is sour grapes). What SHOULD he do? Stick with the status quo? NOTHING? I agree he is truly the right man for the job, and I’m with him all the way.
Posted by: signseeker17 | July 15, 2009, 7:32 pm 7:32 pm
This man, Obama, will go down in history as the worst President this country ever elected to the highest political office in the land. Take a look at a county map produced by a university in Minnesota and you’ll see that it was labor and unions that put him into office. He has not kept any of his campaign promises — suprise/suprise. And if you think your taxes are going to be less…think again. His cronies in the White House, along with people like Dodd and Pelosi don’t care about you, Mr./Miss/Mrs. John Doe….or your health in any magnitude. Get real..confront this President with his free-wheel spending fixes. What a joke he is. I respect the Office of the President of the USA…but not the person currently serving in that position. He is NOT the right man to be serving as this country’s President. How sad he duped so many Americans.
Posted by: blindinbotheyes | September 25, 2009, 2:03 am 2:03 am
He has not kept any of his campaign promises — suprise/suprise. And if you think your taxes are going to be less…think again. His cronies in the White House, along with people like Dodd and Pelosi don’t care about you, Mr./Miss/Mrs. John Doe….
Posted by: WPclassifieds.net | October 10, 2009, 12:08 pm 12:08 pm
I can’t believe he is out eating a fat laden hamburger. He could get fat from that and he has made it clear that after Bush the people most responsible for America’s problems are fat people. Guess he doesn’t know any black fat people. Typical hypricate. What about all his boozing and smoking, I guess that is ok becaue the “savior” is doing it so that is ok. Crappiest president we have ever had.
Posted by: Kathy325 | October 14, 2009, 9:38 am 9:38 am
Do any of you read what you post. Obama is not the problem. The Banks, Insurance Campanies and people who don’t have a soul.(Wall Street) There are so many people out there who don’t have health care whether they are here in the US or someplace else. Please remember everyone has a poor person in their family and you too will be poor soon. Wall Street presidents are taking big bonuses and insurance company are raising your rate and if you looked at the news last night Mr Obama showed you on TV by sitting down with both Parties in one room so you want continue to think its him that making all the decision to show you that the Parties are not willing to work with him because he is BLACK. That what I said BLACK. They want him to Fail. People Read and Look at MSNBC not CNN or Fox you want to know the truth check out Oberman on MSNBC. HE WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH. May God Bless the world because we are going to Hell.
Posted by: AVA | February 26, 2010, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
I hope and pray we never have a republican president or political party heading up out USA ever again. We need to give President Obama a chance. He was elected to do what no other president would do. He stands up, tall and strong and gets things done. We need to shut up Palen and move on to keep this president in office until he is 65, retirement age so he has time to accomplish all that is needed and to clean up what the Bush and Republicans did.
Posted by: D.R. L. | April 15, 2010, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm