In Weekly Address, President Obama Gives Progress Report

republican naysayers unite!( even if you dont have any plausible/reasonable alternatives…)
YAY!! IMMA REPUBLICAN!! ALL I WANT TO DO IS SAY NO!!
(unless its a tax cut for me me me…. then its YES YES YES!!!)

How long are you going to follow Dear Leader, hot hot? Until the whole country’s burned down? What’s your pension fund been doing lately?
If all you can do in the face of reasonable, legitimate questions and concerns about Obama’s policies is yell that it’s Republicans saying no, you’re in for a rude surprise. The effects of a statist, centrally planned, wealth redistributionist model will one day reach you. Then, you’ll wonder, what was I thinking?
We need the media, who are supposed to be the watchdogs of democracy, to start asking where this wealth destruction policy is supposed to take us? No small business incentives because that makes people independent of government. No Wall Street boosting because personal wealth and retirement accounts also free people from needing government. Do you see?
Well, may your chains rest lightly on you.

Mr. Obama is out of control. He’s like a grandfather who took his grandchildren money, goes to the casino and tells them that it is to ensure their future.

And What are the Republicans Doing to try And Fix the Economy? The only thing I see from the Republican Party Is bowing down to almighty Leader Rush,Attacking Eachother,Bashing Obama and the Democrats,Saying No to Everything, And Playing Politicts.At Least the President is Trying Hes Doing, Hes Leading More then I can say For Republicans!

Wall Street Journal:
” The brief continues that federal judges are “ill-equipped to second-guess the Executive Branch.”
That’s about as pure an assertion of Presidential power as they come, and we’re beginning to wonder if the White House has put David Addington, Mr. Cheney’s chief legal aide, on retainer. The practical effect is to prevent the courts from reviewing the legality of the warrantless wiretapping program that Mr. Obama repeatedly claimed to find so heinous — at least before taking office.
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I’m glad that the president has completely changed positions on this issue from that on which he campaigned.
Bush/Cheney were correct then, and Obama is wise to follow in their footsteps.

Rogue Republicans, where have been the last 8 years. Wars cost money, borrow money to fight wars is okay, but spend the same money in America, you whine and complain about OBAMA. Haliburton, Blackwater, EXXON Mobil, Kellogs Brown and Roots, No BID Iran Contractor- all Republicans. They are the parasites , who suck America of livelihood and are now Crying through RUSH LIMBO their leader. Their chances of sucking and gouging America is diminished. They are now crying and jumping up and dowm on their feet like two year olds that they are. Self centered Bible clutching hate groups, cry blood, you will remain defeated.

Well the GOP will just have top keep their heads in the sand as it becomes more and more likely that Stimulus package was too small as predicted by many economists.

Well Lets See thanks a whole Bunch Bushie! Thanks For Letting the Free Market Run Wild, Thanks for Letting the Banks and Wall Street Run a Muck,And pretty Much not giving a Damn What was Going on in this Country, While You Focused On Iraq and BIG OIL Sitting Back Making your Profits.Now Its going to take President Obama some time To Restore Disipline to the Banks and Free Market! once again thanks Bushie!

“Thinking” writes:
Oh let’s dispense with this absurd Earmark crap. It is not the Presidents responsibility to ensure that Congress does it Job. The government budget and finance rightfully belongs to Congress.
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Wrong thinking……Barack Obama made it a PRIMARY campaign theme to stop earmarks……it is only the kool aid drinkers who now nod and wink when he KNOWINGLY disregards his own campaign promises. As far as who is responsible him or Congress have you ever heard of a VETO??? At least he would not be a hypocrite about it.

hot hot,
/—–
republican naysayers unite!( even if you dont have any plausible/reasonable alternatives…) YAY!! IMMA REPUBLICAN!! ALL I WANT TO DO IS SAY NO!! (unless its a tax cut for me me me…. then its YES YES YES!!!)
—–/
They are the biggest bunch of complaining whiners I’ve ever had the displeasure of sharing a country with.

Hi liberals!
yes, republicans are the party of “NO!”
no to socialism
no to incompetent foreign policy
no to signaling to Russia and Iran that we will abandon E. Europe in a heartbeat as long as Russia makes the One look good by talking to their largest customer, Iran
No to partying it up in the WH every Wed night while Rome burns
No to 8500 earmarks in the budget and blaming it on Bush
No to rationed, inefficient “health”care
simply for the sake of covering 12-20 illegal aliens (aka new democratic voters).
No to taxes that cannot possibly be covered by only “the rich”
No to any more tax cheats in the most responsible admistration ever
No to cap and trade policies which will amount to a regressive tax on low and middle class people
No to bumbling adminstation idiots in “charge” of the financial situation who aren’t seen for days at a stretch
Man I can go on forever but I know most liberals are still distracted by thewhole Rush-Steele thing…

all the repbulicans for the last 8 yars have benn doing nothing.All bush did when he was in office care about his daman oil!!! we need somebody in there to do the rigt thing and not sweep war bill under the carpet. that somebody is obama. so go head you republicans complain about obama but he will be a way far president than your bush has ever been. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.see i cant stop laughing

thinking:Oh let’s dispense with this absurd Earmark crap. It is not the Presidents responsibility to ensure that Congress does it Job. The government budget and finance rightfully belongs to Congress.
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Our Founding Fathers gave him a little button to push that says “Veto”.
Or at least that’s what it is supposed to say.

Just an observation.
I’ve been reading a lot of political blogs like this and never have I heard one Republican say they wished John McCain and Sarah Palin had won the election.
Then, say how much better off we all would be. And how John and Sarah would be able to handle the economic crisis better than Barack.

“It is not the Presidents responsibility to ensure that Congress does it Job”
Uh. Yes it is. Constitutionally
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Well not exactly; he is there to uphold the Constitution. It is infact the Congress’ job to determine what that Constitution is, through the several States.

HAWK
Let me Correct you
Republicans nos
No to Healthcare
No to Jobs
No to Education
No to the Middleclass
No to Science
No to Clean renewable Energry
Republicans yes to
Yes to Bailouts to Wall St Rich Ceos
Yes to Wars
Yes to the Wealthy of the Wealthist
Yes to Big Oil Drill Baby Drill
Yes to Torture
Yes to spying
Yes to No bid Contracts In Iraq

doug- I wish John McCain would have won the election. He would have been able to handle the economic crisis better than Barack.
We would be way way way better off.
The man has always been tough on spending. He would have made Pelosi and Reid cut that junk out of the stimulus and the omnibus. He would have frozen government spending until things are under control.

Obama has presided over the biggest stock market collapse of any new president. Unfortunately, it is not over. Obama continues to attack businesses and they respond by laying off more workers (IE: unemployment now at 8.1%). Obama continues to threaten the investors (IE: the evil “rich”) with higher taxes so they refuse to invest in an economy that has little hope of improving under our current leadership. Obama also continues to threaten businesses with needless environmental regulation that will cause businesses to layoff even more workers to maintain their profitability. And finally, Obama continues to push the pollyanish notion that green energy is ready today. It simply isn’t and we are setting ourselves up for another round of punishing fuel prices because our government refuses to allow the kind of domestic production that is needed (by the way, if we produce our own oil it will have less impact on the environment than the current production coming from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE).
Obama has set the US economy up for a true collapse. The only question is whether he is doing this on purpose or if it is simply through ignorance.

Angie: Yes to Bailouts to Wall St Rich Ceos
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President Obama agrees with this idea. The treasury plan as outlined in the Washington Post yesterday, will allow the richest Wallstreet types the opportunity to make enourmous profits from taxpayer dollars with very little risk.

Obama is already a failed president. He simply cannot inspire confidence and the market shows this daily. He is out of his league. Most news organizations are finally picking up on the fact that Obama uses a teleprompter for nearly every speech. I think that is just one more indication how inept this president is. How can he lead if he cannot speak without reading the words of others?

Thinking
Dont even Bother Trying to Explain the Constitution to the Republicans, I mean they have their Own. Bush/Cheney have Shredded it,Sara Palin thinks the VP Controls the Senate,And Rush Limbaugh Dosent Know the Diffrence Between the Constitution and The Delecration Of Independece your wasting your time Thinking!

Obama got elected and the economy and the stock market died.
I blame Chris Dodd and Barney Frank for causing the economic meltdown through the mortgage mess they crafted and defended. I blame Obama for making everything worse.

Angie:According to Republicans Ear marks are Bad
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Is President Obama a Republican? He campaigned against earmarks, Angie.

JENNY
Bush Was President for 8 Years Republicans held Every Branch for 6 Of those years, And You want to Blame this all On the Democrats who only Came into Power The last 2 Years, And President Obama who has only Been President for 44 Days or so You know what I say to that LAUGHABLE JUST LAUGHABLE!

Thinking…we are still waiting on you to criticize the president for ignoring his campaign promise of “no earmarks.” The silence is deafening.
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I critised him for making the promise, which I think, and still think was stupid. Why would I crticize him for not doing something I think is wrong to begin with?

The stock market is down nearly 3000 points from the time Obama took office. It is down nearly 6000 points from the time businesses realized that he might become president. The business community has never had this big of a negative reaction to any incoming president. If Obama is completing a progress report he should be honest and admit that his policies have had a very negative impact and are likely to continue to push American businesses into survival mode.
The sheeple who voted for Obama because he promised to punish the “rich” should remember that when they loose their jobs. They should also remember that if you make more than $32,000 a year you are part of the class that is defined as rich. You will be the target in the coming months and years.

I agree with Pelosi on this one that the Dems should strip the budget and expose the Republicans for their total hypocrisy on this matter.
Senate Republicans, have an enormous amount of earmarks/interests in the bill, yet are withholding their support due to the “spending.” What a crock….
There are 1 1/2 times as many Dems in Congress, yet Republicans managed to have more $$ in earmarks on this bill.
Reid needs to let Pelosi pull the plug on the Republicans as their posturing is nothing more than smoke and mirrors at the Dems expense. The smoke and mirrors strategy is the only life support Republicans have at the moment and Dems would be well-served to pull the plug.

It’s a shame that Bush’s administration wasted so much of our money. It’s a shame that wall street knew they had only lawyers who understood minimal financial nuances and did not catch all the crooks in wall street before they ripped us all off. It’s a greater shame that Right Wingers continue to pretend they don’t know this and drill all others with pointless questions in order to make themselves come across as all knowing, twisting info to make Obama seem like he’s been the problem all along. It was Bush’s administration that put us in this hole. Obama’s administration is trying to get us out. That’s it. It’s that simple. Obama has done a better job in just two months. Nevertheless, you all will try to twist this because you are right wingers and that is all there’s to it.

Jenny
Now your Post is right out of a Limbaugh Play book

Republicans Are in Denial! They Refuse to Admit it was their Party and Their President that Brought this Mess. So they Blame President Obama And the Democrats It Makes them Feel better 87 Percent of the People say Obama Inherited This Mess not caused it and is trying to Clean it up!

We should all rally behind the Republicans who voted against this budget bill because it would cut their funding for staff by 20%. Just because they lost 20% of their representation in congress is no reason to cut their staff budget! No representation without taxation!

As for those with disdain for socialism, I hope you, your children or anyone in your family has not had the opportunity to be stained by Public Education or any government grants for a college. I also hope that you plan to stay pure by forfeiting collecting any social security when you retire.

James – Would you rather continue doing budgets with the Bush gimmicks to make you feel better? After all, Bush did use quite a few to make deficit projections look smaller.
This budget actually includes war spending, medicare reimbursements, expenses for natural disasters and other things the previous administration left out to make us feel better or them look better. You decide.

MayBee – The Republicans are using the budget to cry foul over spending while being the biggest spending offenders. Pelosi wanted to strip the budget clean, therefore stripping the Republicans of their BS argument. If they are so concerned about earmarks, they would not have the majority of them even though they are the minority.
I agree with Pelosi to call the Republicans bluff and yes, save us all the expense.

Ranger:Pelosi wanted to strip the budget clean, therefore stripping the Republicans of their BS argument.
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She did? Well then by all means she should have. Why didn’t she? And why did she get in a shouting match with Harry Reid on Thursday?

James, I am one of the lucky peole who still has a job and I truly enjoy working. I’m one of those weirdos who works more due to the good I feel I provide society, rather than for the pay. I have no problem paying taxes under this administration especially, because I wholeheartdly agree on where my tax dollars should go. Furthermore, I contribute financially toward society in many other ways and I have never, ever wanted to claim them on my taxes because it defeats the whole purpose of why I do it. It’s to help those less fortunate. I am not rich but I grew up in a low income family. I am the child of a man who was raised in a wealthy family that lost everything in the depression. Economics has always affected my life deeply. I have more than my father ever dreamed possible and lot of it is due to social programs that take tax dollars. Now I am giving back in HUGE ways. That’s why I back Obama in his agenda.

“Where can I find more information about Pelosi wanting to take all of the earmarks out of the omnibus bill, and and explanation of how the Republicans stopped her?”
I didn’t say the Republicans stopped her – Reid and Durbin stopped her. Start with David Rodgers article at Politico.

Concerned in OH:”There you have it folks. Their #1 priority is shoving down our throats their liberal wishlist.”
If by “Their” you mean the overwhelming majority of Americans who elected Obama (only the incumbent Reagan in 1984 captured a larger percentage of the American population’s vote), then yes. EVERYTHING Obama is doing so far that you are whining about is EXACTLY what he campaigned he’d do (and the McCain campaign made very sure everyone knew this).
Obama was elected, NOT McCain. Why are you shocked, shocked I say! that he is implementing the policies the majority of American’s endorsed?

INSIGHT
That Is a Republican Faliure, Why do you think Democrats Won Highly In both Elections?and it is the Same reason Why Republicans now have a 25 Percent Approval Rating THEY FAILED US!

Woody
That is not the Reason Banks stop Leanding, Banks have Stopped Because they Have Lost Billions with their Mortgage Whealing and Dealings! And People are Afraid to Invest In the Market For a Number Of reasons so Before You start Listening To Fox News Do think for yourself commonsense!

A massive lending intiative combined with more protectionism to guard and promote our own domestic capabilities and know-how makes a lot more sense than a bunch of NewDeal projects going to foreign companies.

One thing we’re still missing is an efficient way for banks to off-load bad debts competetively. They seem to be holding up the effort, because they would rather just have the government give them money outright for bad debts, instead of competition to off-load them. They must help promote a competetive and efficient system to off-load bad debts, or we will all go under.

Ranger:
“That’s ironic considering their greed is a substantial reason why our nation is in the shape it’s in.”
—————————————
The WSJ has an article on the mark to market accounting rule which helps explain why banks are constrained from lending despite great liquidity.

Plumber
Are you Joe the Fake Plumber?

I conjunction with that, a whole slew of policies and guidlines is required to make retirement of debt and new lending fair to individuals. For example, if a family lost their home in foreclosure when jobs were lost, then they found a new home that they could afford with different jobs, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to start again as long as their estate had less worth than when they started, and as long as they left their old home in good condition. Injustice beyond that is normal economic activity, unless illegal.

“Obama’s full steam ahead approach with his far left agenda.”
Nononono. There’s no “left” agenda. This is happy-face fascism, deliberately dithering and mewling — while shoveling the Treasury into the corporations, from whence it does who-knows-where — until the rebellions begin, when it can show itself — as in Pakistan, and now Mexico, and wherever — more robustly …

“Republicans Are in Denial! They Refuse to Admit it was their Party and Their President that Brought this Mess.” How long will revisionists continue to repeat this claim before they realize that the US public is not as gullible as 1930s Germany when Hitler blamed every problem on the Jews? It was the AMERICAN PUBLIC’s eternal and lackwitted quest for easy money and the good life that got us into this mess. Regardless of what the laws permitted, no one forced them into overpriced homes with imbecilic mortgage terms.

Nononono. There’s no “left” agenda. This is happy-face fascism, deliberately dithering and mewling — while shoveling the Treasury into the corporations, from whence it does who-knows-where — until the rebellions begin, when it can show itself — as in Pakistan, and now Mexico, and wherever — more robustly …
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I am sure you will be there!

President Obama’s policies to date have not done anything to improve the economy. In fact, quite the contrary. President Obama has presided over the biggest stock market collapse of any new president in the history of the US. President Obama continues to threaten businesses and investors with higher taxes and businesses are responding by laying off more workers and investors are pulling their money out of the stock market.
In addition, President Obama’s 3.5 trillion dollar budget contains substantial funding for “green energy” The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in early 2008 that the government already subsidizes solar energy at $24.34 per megawatt-hour (MWh) and wind power at $23.37. Yet even with decades of these massive handouts, as well as numerous state-level mandates for utilities to use green power, wind and solar energy contribute less than one-half of 1 percent of our nation’s electricity.
Compare the green energy subsidies to the energy sources reviled by environmentalists, such as natural gas (25 cents per MWh in subsidies), coal (44 cents), hydroelectricity (67 cents), and nuclear power ($1.59). With relatively little government largesse, these sources (along with oil, which undergirds transportation) do the heavy lifting in our energy economy.
The alternative technologies at the heart of Obama’s plan, relying on more such government handouts and mandates, will inevitably raise energy prices—and high power prices are job killers. Industries that make physical products, whether cars or chemicals or paper cups, are energy-intensive and will gravitate to low-energy-cost locales—which is why California and New York, with some of the highest electricity prices in the country, have lost manufacturing jobs in droves. But it’s not just manufacturers that need cheap electricity: Goggle, the poster child of California’s information-technology economy, which houses its massive server farms are not in the Golden State but in places with lower electricity costs, like North Carolina and Oregon.
“Policies that drive up energy costs across the nation, as Obama intends, will drive many of these jobs not elsewhere in the country but overseas.”
- Max Schulz

Fellow Comrades, our march to socialism is progressing well. The USSA (united Socialist states of America) will soon be ours.. Soon your hungry bellies wil be full of beet and cabbage soup, adn when we get rid of GM, you will have well built Russian cars to drive…now be sure you dont get on m y enemies list like Cramer or any other nitwit at CNBC or i will destroy you

In other words, all is going along smoothly and according to plan.

Investors are giving Obama the raspberry because it is obvious that he has given one to them. Fixing the financial system should have been Job One for the new Administration, and it could have gotten off to a flying start if it had treated the financial crisis like, you know, a crisis. Instead they treated it as a backdrop for their Lets Redistribute The Wealth show. They spent oodles of political capital and time attacking Rush Limbaugh instead of attacking the problem in the credit market.
Six weeks in to the new Administration, and Tim Geithner sits alone at Treasury without a single additional appointee. Yet the White House has had time to add all sorts of “czars” to the White House staff, hire a political opposition researcher, and send the President out for a bunch of campaign rallies.
Ronald Reagan came into office amid a serious economic crisis. He did not travel abroad and rarely even left Washington for the first 18 months of his term. Even with a Cold War at the edge of turning into a hot war, Reagan knew that his first job was to fix the economy and get the American people to have confidence in the U.S. again. Investors saw the capable team Reagan assembled (even his Secretary of State, George Shultz, was a trained economist and had led a large multinational corporation, and was a key member of his economic policy team) and the seriousness with which they attacked the problem.
Yet here we have Barack Obama ready to trot off to England for a completely unimporant audience with the Queen. We see him spending precious little time speaking to the real crisis at hand, and instead plowing ahead with his Utopian agenda of health care and windmills for all.
Investors see this man and his team as fundamentally unserious.

Enlighten us how higher taxes on small business helps the employment market. Explain how cap-and-trade helps the consumer’s pocketbook. Explain how socializing healthcare and college entitlements help the economy. Face it, President Obama is either an idiot or a socialist.

The inheritance which has fallen to us is a terrible one. The task with which we are faced is the hardest which has fallen …The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and co-operation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built.”
Another speech, given in 1933. Sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it? That nation was definitely brought together. Until 1945, then it was cut up.
Keep hiding behind “blame and hate the Republicans” and “He’s our Only Hope.” As a matter of fact, that’s probably for the best for you. Followers do benefit…for a while.
And it sure beats thinking for yourself.

“And it sure beats thinking for yourself.”
It appears you and drjohn certainly grasp that point.

Angie in PA says:
“Woody
That is not the Reason Banks stop Leanding, Banks have Stopped Because they Have Lost Billions with their Mortgage Whealing and Dealings! And People are Afraid to Invest In the Market For a Number Of reasons so Before You start Listening To Fox News Do think for yourself commonsense!”
You failed to grasp my original point. The vast majority of banks, credit unions and trusts are in very good shape. They simply don’t trust the marketplace right now. They also lend in many more ways that just mortgages. They’re not lending because of uncertainty, which is also why the markets are crashing. What could be causing this uncertainty? Could it be Obama’s open warfare on banks? Could it be his open disdain for capitalism and corporate America?
Just for the record, I don’t listen to Fox news or any other TV news station, nor do I have time to listen to the idiots on the radio. They’re all a waste of time. I get all of my news and opinion from print and websites, including fox, brietbart, yahoo, msnbc, bloomberg, npr, huffington post, politico, salon, drudge and others. You should try listening to both sides of the argument. It’s enlightening.

Maybe if Bush didn’t “cook the books” and lie again to the American people, we would have seen it coming. I am confident that Mr. Obama is building the economy the right way….not a “fake” economy, but one that will be stronger and real. How can we say we are the most powerful country in the world, and yet, don’t have a foundation to build on. Education sucked for years. How are we going to compete, medical care is nil, we have been allowing the young to have less of a future by not recognizing the back end of these ramifications in the Long Haul. For years, we have had “fluff” in the White House without getting anything done. Was there any accomplishments made in the past 8 years. I KNOW not! Oh, I forgot tax cuts for the wealthy. What did that do. Gave them license to steal?

I was taught at age 9 that everything in life is a Process. There’s a process to getting out of this financial “ditch”. It was a process to getting in it, and it’s a Process to getting out. Our, yes our President understands this wonderfully, and there’s elements involved in this “crisis” that has to be fixed (a president has to do more than one thing in this job) because it goes hand in hand with THE “Crisis”. Ignoring it would lead to what we have been having, A FALSE SENSE FINANCIAL SECURITY, THAT HELPED GOT US HERE. PEOPLE WERE SPENDING AND SPENDING, WITHOUT THE STRAIGHT FORWARDNESS OF OUR PAST LEADERS. WHY YOU THINK PEOPLE WERE SPENDING THEIR HOME EQUITY, SHOPPING AND BUYING HIGH END MERCHANDISE? They were led to believe the financial system in our country was “fundamentally strong”. So You think, we should have “regrouped” in 47 days? Get REAL.

sngeorgia, we Republicans are not “whining”– we are expressing our concerns. Sounds like you did plenty of that yourself during the Bush years– would you have wanted to have your complaints dismissed as “whining”? (Of course, since you are still at it now, I did just dismiss your snark about Bush in a previous post. *G*)
Yes, the Republicans have a “plan,” as you insist on putting it. Actually, they have a governing philosophy and a set of principles. And their plans do not carry much weight, since they are outnumbered in COngress and cannot implement their plans, because the Democrats who rave about bipartisanship are not interested in proposals that are generated by Republicans. So ideas like a spending freeze or an end of earmarks do not gain traction (and yes, I am painfully aware that a large percentage of the earmarks in this omnibus bill were generated by Republicans, who are a big part of the problem.) Individual Republicans have good ideas that should get a better hearing.
But go ahead and dismiss Republican concerns as “whining.” If you want to believe that The Chosen One has all the answers, keep on dreaming. But many of us would disagree. Which is not the same as thinking that no Democrats have any good ideas, or even that Obama has absolutely none, or that everything Bush or any other Republican has done is wonderful and beyond criticism.

What is socialism and is that what most Americans now want???

Obama is ending the financial tyranny that the republicans put in place. We were becoming a nation that was generally indentured to the financial world. Under Bush we became a country where the best anyone could hope for, if they worked hard enough and got lucky enough to get a good enough job, was to leverage their meager earnings into borrowing enough for a car and a house for their family to survive. The slightest wind blew down that house of cards. Now I am hoping that Obama can reverse the trend toward a generally indentured nation. For sure the republicans weren’t going to do it.

mjB….The article you mention states many of the reasons I could not vote for him but, may not have been able to explain to others. There is something to be said about intuition but, of course facts make the mind cement the idea.
I have been hoping I am wrong about this president because I DO want him to succeed for the sake of the country. How long will the honeymoon last, who knows.
I always thought he was evasive and could not substantiate fact during the campaign which further eroded by confidence in his candidacy. I am willing to give the man a chance but, some decisions have already made me wince. I continue to hope I am wrong about this president.

James,
/—–
Obama has presided over the biggest stock market collapse of any new president.
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STEM stupid. Don’t blame Obama if you want to keep investing in Wall Street’s fake derivatives instead of the companies that actually want to make something tangible for the benefit of Americans.

sngeorgia…It is always good to see you are being consistent and your rants align nicely with pretty much everything you have ever said on these blogs. Consistency is a good thing – and, by gawd, you are consistent.
Your position can be summed up with (1) Bush did it (2) Obama rocks and (3) shut up Reps because the voters have spoken.
Here is the bottom line: if this stimulus plan forwarded by the Obama administration doesn’t start to produce some results that curb these massive lay offs then there is a better than even chance that the next four years is going to be a flat out nightmare – for him and us. We can build roads until the cows come home but if businesses are not encouraged to create jobs then this economy is going to continue to spiral downward. There is talk aboout 25 jobs created in Ohio that are directly tied to the Obama plan – of course, there was that pesky 650K jobs lost last week. The plan needs to be supported by business – as much as Mr. Obama appears to hate business the fact is there are jobs in “them thar hills.”
Its interesting: Obama is ready to sit down with rogue nations that support terrorism yet he is ready to wage war with business and its “greedy Wall Street executives.”

Couldn’t figure out an appropriate place to mention this, so this thread is as good as any. Remember last week when we were all up in arms– some pro and some con– over the earmark for honeybee research? Well, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I was reading a magazine aimed at small businesses and saw a brief report about two private companies in Florida who have invested time and resources WITHOUT GOVERNMENT FUNDING to develop a vaccine for bees that may reduce the incidents of hive collapse. The vaccine is being tested at the moment and should be commercially available soon. Just as some earlier suggested, public financing is not the only path to solid, significant scientific research.

moderate,
/—–
Do you really want to mock small stockholders like my parents and many other responsible older americans I know, whose retirement funds are devastated even though they are not, and never have been, wild-eyed speculators and get-rich-quick schemers? The problems of Wall Street
—–/
First, I don’t ‘mock’ people for investing. Second, blame the right culprits — Bush, Paulson and Chris Cox. They stole your parent’s money, but you want to blame Obama for correcting Wall Street’s greed. That makes no sense.
The only way to make the perpetrators pay up for their crimes and give all of us our money back is to charge the criminals.

Common Sense, I used the term “mock” because you wrote, to paraphrase, don’t blame Obama if you insist on investing in Wall Street derivates instead of real companies. Most small investors were not/are not mixed up in such matters, so I felt that comment was wrong. Perhaps I should have used a less harsh term. My apologies.
However, let me be clear. I am not saying anyone “stole” my parents (or my) money. That’s your term, and I think it is ill-chosen. You can try to lay all the blame on Cox, Bush, and Paulson for the stock market mess — and I assume that you are saying that did indeed “steal” people’s investments by creating the debacle– but I do not agree. I am pretty negative on Chris Cox, to be sure. However, I think Bush and Paulson addressed the crisis with mixed results. TARP did not cause the market plunge, but it certainly did not halt it, either. I have never said the entirety of the blame for the current mess lies with Obama. But he is far from blameless. The steps he is taking in the financial realm are, in my opinion, making matters worse rather than better. His actions have driven the prices of my stocks lower than they would otherwise have been. That was my point, and I stand by it. No, I do not see Obama as “correcting Wall Street’s greed”– not by a long shot.
In addition, his refusal to address Congressional greed with the same enthusiasm he reserves for fuming about Wall Street greed is only exacerbating the unhappiness in the business community.

Japan did not let their failed system collapse as they should have, and initiated very lopsided bail-outs of only their financial institutions (only), from then until now 20 years later Japan has not seen a recovery and none is in sight. Some say they just didn’t do enough fast enough, but there is another perspective. In the Great Depression a failed system was allowed to collapse, and recovery did occur eventually, in only 10 years. In all instances, over-leveraging in the face of strong fiscal policy caused these events. In the instance of the Great Depression, after which recovery did take place, during the recovery there were brief intermittent periods of hyper-inflation that allowed eventual recovery to take place by marginalizing prior commitments that were made at a time when visibility showed a different picture. We are currently still adhering to strong dollar policy, while not allowing a failed system to collapse through bail-outs of financial institutions (only). That means to me that we are doing the 2 most important things wrong. However, just as there is some hope for this method as stability provided to banks that caused this is now being balanced with stability for the consumer, through judicial mortgage re-writing, this was a successful component of the recovery from the Great Depression as well and is hopeful to see today. However, without some hyper-inflation to marginalize the large number of pervasive commitments that are nonsensical in the face of strong currency policy, further unwinding and defaulting will continue to occur and continue to be a large component of a further down-turn.

I cannot help but wonder just how satisfied those folks who fell for his change must now feel…The man was an unknown quantity who has proven his lack of experience from day one. His inability to even chooose cabinet members who can pass his own vetting process exhibits his lack of common sense or arrogance. As I watch my 401k disappear as well as my retirement stocks, I am sickened by the gluttony that exists in DC. Liberals can only use “bush” for so long to blame before the rest of America realizes it is the new Socialist regime headed by his majesty, Obama. God save this country for Obama will ruin it.

J’m afraid that his popularity is going to hit rock bottom very soon. Wher are the promises he made during the election campaign. He is a poor acrobat: He tries to keep his balance by saying the opposite of what he does.

moderate,
I am not knocking your investment strategy. We all made the mistake of investing in ‘solid’ companies. What we did not expect was for the unbridled greed going on behind the scenes to take place because securities are supposed to be REGULATED in the U.S.
My only point is that while the right is blaming Obama for the stock market woes, they are not listening to what is ‘changing’ in the market. It is sort of like crying over spilled milk while not bothering to get another (hole-free) glass to refill. Part of it is the trust factor. That is the part Obama is addressing by standing up to Wall Street.
Check out thedailyshow website and watch the vid on Santelli. There’s another good one at their site titled The Dow Knows All.

Everywhere I go the discussion comes down to three things: (1) banks lending money (to consumers and businesses), (2) mortgage backed securities clogging up the liquidity lines at banks and (3) job losses at staggeringly fast rates.
If the Obama administration would suspend Mark to Market accounting the impact on banks lending money again – in particular to businesses. The way it is now, banks have no incentive to lend their money. It is in their interests to leave the money in banks in the form of actual cash and not assets or loans.
If the Obama administration would simply address this issue and, if nothing else, tell us why they are not prepared to do this. The President says things like “we all need to work together…” and here is a very simple and absolutely free remedy and his administration is quiet on this issue.
The federal government is already in hot pursuit of buying mortgage backed securities to the tune of $4 Billion dollars a day. The overall budget for this round of buys is $500 Billion dollars. We are less than half way there. This is having a positive impact on banks’ liquidity (not to mention the TARP money).
If the Obama adminstration would simply address the way in which value is determined via mark-to-market accounting the overall impact on banks and businesses would be positive enough that maybe – just maybe – businesses will stop laying off so many people. If we can get them to actually stop laying off people then, with the right incentives they might, one day start to hire a few folks.
I don’t think anyone blames the Obama administration for the condition of this economy. He got here just in time to catch it in the downward spiral. But, there is no question that his stimulus plan is not stimulating and he is not using everything available to him to start to stop this gridlock between banks and business.
If he continues to let this economy falter with these tools available it is my belief that eventually (and not that far out in time) there will be a huge backlash against him and his policies. That is not necessarily going to be a bad thing but think of the lost opportunities because he simply did not suspend M2Market accounting.
It is easy to make the leap to he has another agenda in mind; getting businesses to seop laying people off has to be a real first step and he can do that by working with banks and giving them genuine reasons to start lending money. If banks start lending again the impact would find its way to businesses not looking to cut costs in the form of personnel.

Personally, I think Obama’s doing a fine job.

I can think of 651,000 more people since January who don’t think he’s doing fine, Common Sense, even ignoring the 34,000 Circuit City employees officially unemployed as of today. And there are tens of thousands in the coming weeks who will be joining them as this ineffectual government keeps chanting the mantra of positive mental attitude and preaching the virtues of increasing government control.

PM Brown gave two symbolic gifts and one that expressed national pride. Brown came bearing a pen holder carved from the timbers of the sister ship of that which gave the wood to create the famous “Resolute Desk,” the desk that has been in America’s charge since 1880. He also gave Obama the framed commission for that famous ship, the HMS Resolute. His third gift was a seven-volume biography of one of England’s greatest leaders, Winston Churchill
GUESS WHAT OUR OBUMA GAVE HIM
So, what did President Obama give the British PM? 25 movies on DVD. Yeah, that’s it. Brown gives a symbolic gift like the pen holder fashioned from a famous British warship and Obama responds by sending a staffer to WalMart to pick up a few quick movies.

I read a book about FDR (Champion of Freedom / Black) and it indicated that he had no intention of making his social programs permanent. In today’s politics, I wonder if we could ever shut anything down after it gets any level of momentum.

Obama warned trouble remains on the horizon.
“We will continue to face difficult days in the months ahead,” the president said. “But I also believe that we will get through this — that if we act swiftly and boldly and responsibly, the United States of America will emerge stronger and more prosperous than it was before.”
He ended his speach with an under his brath remark that sounded like ” I wasn’t talking to you fools”

One inept fool messes thing up. (Bush)Another takes his place, and promises transparency. That no lobbyists will be appointed, no earmarks will escape his red pen, hope and change shall prevail for the good of the people… This is absolutely disgusting! Do you have life in you? Wake up! What happened to that red-blooded American spirit I grew up with? Are you all dead? Speak up with the truth friends. Stand up and don’t let anyone speak for you! We are together in this, and subject to this devastating mal-leadership. We will be feeding each other with each others’ tax money food stamps! Obama is quickly defining himself as a greater fool than Bush. Bush at least believed in America, but Obama evidently believes in rewarding those who got him where he is; the people can wait, the people can…! Put your glasses on and take a closer look at Obama! If you still can’t see that indeed he really IS an empty suit, then keep watching with healthy skepticism, your focus will improve.