What Obama has done to the Economy

Under the leadership of President Obama and his administration a number of significant things have happened to the economy while many were distracted. As we are given endless images of a few thousand sore losers funded by far right organizations and promoted by a fake news channel, things have been happening. While Ohio right wing blogs like Liberally Conservative posts pseudo intellectual pieces trying to prove Obama is a Communist, and nut cases promote endless chain letters purporting everything from Obama is Hitler to the Antichrist, his administration has been at work. As they scream about hanging on to their guns and government takeovers Obama has continued on.

So what has been happening.

The 700 billion Bank bailout that angered many Americans and set them off on screams about government spending and the deficit done during the Bush administration, has under the guidance of the Obama administration has not only saved our banking system from catastrophe but now approximately 620 billion has now been paid back.

We went from losing 700,000 jobs a month during the last year of the Bush administration to less and less each month of the Obama administration to now we are actually gaining jobs once again.

General Motors that was on the brink of disaster which would have lead to millions of job losses and a blow to our economy from which we would have never recovered was saved. People screamed "government motors" and all kinds of knee jerk cute phrases that appealed to the ignorant. But here we are a year later and GM has paid back the government in full with interest.

Investors, including millions of Americans retirement plans and 401k, hit the skids as the stock market reached its lowest point in decades under Bush. Under Obama it has recovered most of its value and the Dow Jones industrial average in the 10,000 range once again.

They screamed things like: "death panels", "government takeover" "socialized medicine" when the Health Care Bill was being debated. Yet what we got was Health Care Reform that maintained the private ownership of insurance companies, makes sure that no one can lose their insurance if we get sick, gets rid of preexisting conditions, keeps the young covered under their parents policies, and covers 30 million uninsured Americans all the while reducing the deficit by reducing costs.

So what has been happening while we all weren't paying attention. The economy and yes capitalism is doing quite well. After 8 years of policies that lead this country almost into depression, an actual competent President has been quite successfully leading us toward prosperity. Oh and the most surprising thing of all, he has done this all while lowering the taxes for 95% of Americans.

So shout all you want tea partiers, draw those crowds of 3-8000 angry old white men. But understand its reality that lead to hundreds of thousands at some Obama rallies last election and will lead to his win by a bigger landslide in 2012.

Another Obama Success

With just over 6 months in office President Obama is quickly showing to be one of the most successful and effective Presidents our nation has had in a long time. Despite the unprecedented mess he was left with by the failures of the Bush Administration he has quickly and effectively dealt with each one with speed and effectiveness.

The newest clear success has been the "cash for clunkers" program. This rebate program to stimulate sales in the ailing auto industry and remove more gas guzzlers from the road replacing with more fuel efficient vehicles, has been a bigger success then anyone dreamed. 1 billion dollars has flowed into our economy in 4 days. This has helped the auto industry, improved our fuel consumption, saved jobs, and helped individuals economically by saving them money at the gas pumps.

Another success is Iraq. A year ago he was practically being accused of being a traitor for wanting to get out troops out of Iraq. Now a leading Colonel has stated things are such we should leave now. What is more amazing many on the right are now suddenly agreeing. In short Obama's Iraq strategy has been a huge success so far.

The Banks were on the brink of failure. Massive tax dollars were spent propping this greedy inefficient institutions from the brink of collapsing our economy. Now in 7 short months, those banks are paying back the money. Who would have believed that would happen that fast when Obama took office.

GM and Chrysler were both in huge trouble. The failure of these two companies could have cost up to 3 million jobs. The President was blasted for his actions. Yet today we have two companies that have quickly gone through reorganization and are on their feet and reopening plants. Another disaster averted and a successful policy by our President.

Finally the Stimulus Package. Despite the lies and misinformation being spread by the right the two year plan of the American Recovery Act is right on schedule. Only 25% of the way in time wise, 20% of the funds have been spent. All over the country Infrastructure is being repaired, Schools being fixed or refurbished, cops put on the streets, jobs are being created in construction, engineering, architecture and many other sectors. Republican Governors all over the country are verbally trashing the stimulus as they do photo ops giving giant size checks, taking credit for it. If the first 6 months of this plan is any indication, the stimulus plan will show to be another huge success.

One of the biggest frustrations Americans have with politicians is that they make promises as they campaign that they never live up to. Obama is clearly fulfilling the promises he made to the American People.

Now on to Health Care Reform!

Union Busting

I am not one to blindly support unions and do I think the Big 3 automakers deserve blasting for their lack of foresight and vision. But have no doubt the Republicans have one agenda here and that is to bust the UAW a huge political force behind the democratic party.

Here are the facts, yes GM, Ford, and Chrysler are in trouble. Yes they put themselves in this position. They did not look to the future and put the development and resources into developing cars that would sell when the inevitable high fuel prices peaked. They went for short term gain rather then long term solutions, kind of like what the Congress has done for decades.

The UAW is not without fault either, yet, they have already negotiated down many things including labor rates, health costs and pension benefits that will bring the labor costs of the big 3 into competitive balance in 2010.

Congress is also at fault. We like to blast the Big 3 for making the wrong cars. Why because Congress also failed to show vision and push for higher cafe standards among other things.

Who else is at fault? The American consumer. The big 3 made the type of cars that we were buying. Last I checked, that is what a successful business is supposed to do. So as you whine and cry about your tax money going to this, be sure not the soil the seats on your gas guzzling SUV that you apparently needed to navigate the rough roads of the suburbs.

No one is happy about this, but the reality is we cannot let the last major manufacturing sector in our economy fail. The question is do we do it now getting reasonable concession and changes by all concerned before a complete recession, or do we let the republicans break the union and further damage our economy in the process.

GOP plays Nero while Economy Burns

In an attempt to separate themselves from the Bush administration and all his failed policies that have lead our country to the brink of financial collapse, the GOP has failed our country by voting against the Economic recovery bill and the stock market has its 3rd biggest point loss in history.

They went against their leadership and against their own President to pull this political stunt. Take a look at who voted for and against the bill. My quick spot checking shows that Republicans that are retiring or safe districts voted for the bill and those trying to separate themselves from Bush in fear of losing in tight races voted against it. Examples are Hobson voted for it, Schmidt against.

There were also 95 Democrats that voted against the bill Dennis Kucinich among them.

The fact is this. No one is happy about having to do this. Yet, 8 years of Bush policies and 20 years of eliminating or not enforcing regulations caused by people like John McCain have created this problem. Republicans are hell bent on sticking to their voodoo trickle down economics despite the obvious failure of such policies.

It angers me we have to do this, but the reality is the economy is bleeding. We must stop the bleeding first, then do the hard work of diagnosing and healing it.

GOP Blackmail on Bailout to Help the Rich

The Republicans are using the seeming urgency of the need for this bailout and demanding items to be added that have one and only one purpose, the help the wealthy.

First they are demanding a tax cut. One for the middle class, of course not these are Republicans. They are actually trying to push through another capital gains tax cut. Does this help the current crises in any way. No of course not. It helps the wealthy who may profit from this rescue to make even more money but cutting their taxes on their gains.

But the most disgusting item they are pushing for is to repeal The Community Reinvestment Act. This act which was first implemented in 1977 and adapted in 1995, has as its purpose to require banks to invest in all areas of their market not just the wealthy neighborhoods. The repeal of this act would destroy our urban neighborhoods and severely restrict the growth of small businesses and jobs in the inner city.

So as they did with the Iraq War Vote and the Patriot Act they are trying to sneak in things that the majority of Americans would never want. This will once again benefit their wealthy donors and harm the middle class and the poor.

I am beginning to believe this entire "crises" is a Republican Scheme to try to hold on to some of the house seats they were about to lose in huge numbers.

McCain and GOP play politics while a bank fails

Country First?

After days of intense negotiations and hard work Congressional Leaders had reached an agreement to deal with the economic crisis. Then comes in Super Senator John McCain flying in on his white horse to "save the country."

What happened next is the most disgusting display of politics above the good of the country in the history of this nation. McCain and a handful of Republicans scuttle the deal, at first it appeared they were just stalling so McCain could arrive so he could take credit for the deal. This was clear in an interview McCain was hoping to be given credit for any deal. But now their motives are clearly to delay any deal to create a crises and distraction from McCain's plummeting chances to be elected President.

While they play these games Washington Mutual fails. This is the largest bank failure in American History.

Good job McCain!

Wait Just a Damn Minute!

Ok let me get this straight. Wall street and the big banks were given complete freedom by the "conservatives" like Bush and McCain to do anything they want, any time they want with no significant regulation or oversight. Their theory being that the Free Market will control what will happen better then government.

So they did what they wanted. Many in these institutions made millions creating false wealth, shoddy business practices, giving bad loans and creating all kinds of strange instruments in order to get wealthier and wealthier.

And guess what, the Free Market did work, this bubble of false wealth is bursting. But now they are telling us, that the problem is these institutions got so big and so important in our economy that we have to bail them out.

So now comes George W Bush and Hank Paulson. George who created false crisis to rush our country into war, to pass the Patriot act, the single most devastating law to constitutional rights in our country's history, now wants us to buy that this is another crises and we need to jump in and do something now without thinking about it.

Hank Paulson a former CEO of one of the companies that helped create this mess, Goldman Sachs, now Secretary of the Treasurer, wants Congress to give him $700,000,000,000. He is going to hire "consultants" these would of course be people from these very institutions that mismanaged us into this mess. Then Hank and these other cronies what to protect the people that made millions of this mess by giving their former colleagues our tax money to keep them from losing all their millions they made while most of America suffers.

And here is the kicker. He wants complete authority with no oversight whatsoever. Sound unbelievable? Here is section 8 of the proposed bailout. "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

The money they want to give to their friends and colleagues is your money. It is your children's money. In fact 700 billion is approximately $2500 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Are you ready to give $2500 of your money to help out the guys who made millions through mismanagement? Then tell them use it anyway you want and we won't watch or review it?

I think not. This is Bush and Hank Paulson trying to raid the safe before they leave the company in a few months.

Obama is saying. Hold up lets look at this. McCain is all over the place as usual. The facts are some bailout will be necessary. But throwing more money without changing the regulatory situation that Bush and McCain created is just plain stupid.
Bailing out those that made millions while leaving the people that were wrong who are losing their homes, is just plain immoral.

We need wisdom from a man like Barack Obama to actually solve the problems that created this mess. Not a transfer of the funds of the U.S. Treasury to the millionaires that created and benefited from it.

How Dare They

This morning I sat and watched George W. Bush preach to us on what is good for the economy. Later he went on to say "I decided to act and act boldly." Then he gave us his apparently new revelation. "Turns out that the collapse of one part of the system affects the whole system."

George W you have lost all credibility in telling anyone what is good for the economy. It is your policies that have crippled not only the U.S. Economy but has put the worlds economy in danger. Claiming that you acted at all especially "boldly" is crap. You Sir have done nothing.

Then yesterday there was John McCain. Mr Keating 5 himself who interfered to stop investigation into a failed savings and loan to lead to the last economic crises. Who preached for 26 years against regulation to let the corporations and banks do whatever they wanted. To allow greed to rule rather then common sense. To put our nations economy at risk. To have a campaign run by the very people that has influenced Congress to allow this to happen. Then you try to blame Barack Obama?

Hypocrites, both. Liars both. You are both directly involved in creating this mess. Americans want change. Not more protections for the corporations so that they can operate on a motive of greed and when they mess up we the taxpayers have to pay to keep them alive?

Yes I am pointing fingers. Because it is clear who is responsible. The Republicans are clearly responsible. It is them that said all regulation is bad. It is them that have given the corporations every thing they want. It is them that allowed greed and profits to grow for the rich on the backs of the middle class. Now suddenly they want government intervention to have the very middle class that has been injured by all of this to now pay to bail them out.

How dare they try to take credit for fixing the problem they created. How dare they ask for us to pay for their greed. How dare they try to blame Barack Obama.

Enough is Enough, It is time for real solutions offered by Barack Obama. Not more money to the corporations that have blown it.