Weekly Address: Putting the American People First

[cal04]

Run time: 04:02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seIZB6qQEWY   Posted on YouTube: August 12, 2011 By YouTube Member: whitehouse Views on YouTube: 281   Posted on DU: August 13, 2011 By DU Member: cal04 Views on DU: 3792

 
WEEKLY ADDRESS: Putting the American People First
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/13/weekly-address-putting-american-people-first

[Angry Dragon]

1. I really hate that 2% payroll tax cut................

and those three new trade deals ......... more jobs lost

[grahamhgreen]

28. Trade deals cost jobs and the SS tax Cut damages SS. He's got to know this.

What a waste.

[liberalmike27]

31. Sadly, When Obama Come on the Tube Now

I start saying blah, blah, blah, blah, blaahh. He had almost everything he could have, and he's been so lame, so filled with Valium soaked rhetoric, dealing with Republicans as if he'd just taken a big old Quaalude, well he just blew it all away. Turns out being nice is a real drawback, you have to act a bit like a dick, and not give in on everything.

[bowens43]

2. when Obama talks about 'putting the American People first'

you know we're in for a royal screwing....

[Donnachaidh]

19. first for cuts, first for loss of tax breaks - first for REAL ACTUAL SACRIFICE

yeah, we sure are lucky, huh? :sarcasm:

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

25. Don't forget, "corporations are people, too"

At least that's what Citizens United and Mitt Romney tell us.

Are those the American people President Obama is referring to?

[Amonester]

39. Those American people R not listening, and R not interested in...

these 'kind and gentle' words. In short, they couldn't care less.

All they want is for their next 'nutjob' to defeat him come Nov. 2012, and that's about it.

The real question is, why doesn't President Obama start calling them up for it instead of speaking Chinese about them (not naming them specifically)?

[Hubert Flottz]

38. He's talking about the corporate personhood.

And the upper 1%.

[bread_and_roses]

3. Is that really the title???? ROFL

I can't watch him anymore. But the title is an out and out lie - I have to either laugh or cry just reading it.

[ladjf]

12. Watching and hearing him weasel his way through yet another

speech makes me nauseous. nt

[emilyg]

16. I laugh.

[quark219]

4. Kind of sad.

Watching this, I see a person overwhelmed and in over his head. The man doesn't know how to fight for a principle or how to lead... and his eyes in the last 20 seconds suggest he knows his presidency is going nowhere.

(And, yes, I know this post will result in all sorts of indignation from the Obama diehards, including lengthy lists of underwhelming accomplishments.)

[Butch350]

7. NOT FROM ME!

[truth2power]

11. Not from me. Just about everyone in the blogosphere, even those

whose opinions were once praised on DU, are horrified to the point of apoplexy over the way things are going down.

And don't get me wrong...those on the other side are a band of effing crazies. Watching those folks puts me in mind of that song, "They're coming to take me away, haha." One of those guys who signed on to Rick Perry's Prayer Gathering or whatever they called it, claims the Statue of Liberty is an evil death goddess erected by a Masonic conspiracy. Mother. of. god! :scared:

We are screwed.

[Shining Jack]

23. Lengthy lists of underwhelming accomplishments:

Er... He built a better mousetrap?

[Enthusiast]

34. More frightening is the fact that these are his principles.

What are we going to do?

I would like to see a poll on free trade agreements. Support for more free trade agreements must be around 12% or so.

[SharksBreath]

5. Putting the American People First. Two and a half years later.

Hun

[Butch350]

6. Putting the American people 1st in line to get SCREWED!

[A Physicist]

8. Fool Me Once

I maxed out my campaign contributions to this guy after he won the primary in 2008; he will not get another red cent from me.

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — — shame on you. Fool me — — You can't get fooled again.”

[Javaman]

9. I guess the new "first" is after the corporations...

oh and also after the banks.

[RussBLib]

10. Kill the H1B visa program!

Which allows corporations to hire and import cheap workers, displacing American workers. But, the corps want even MORE H1B visas, so I guess you can see where that is going.

[Enthusiast]

35. That would be a good start...nt

[JJW]

13. When he says putting people first

he mean person-hoods, as in global & US corporations that evade US taxes.

[truth2power]

14. Cut in payroll tax...$1000 back in the pociet of average American..

Which "average" is he using? Does anyone know how much someone making $50,000 a year got back last year? I just want to know. It doesn't seem like it would be that much.

Oh, and he should be referring to the median, I would think.

More bafflegab, IMO.

[JJW]

15. How much does he figure

the average Bankster put in his/her pocket?

[unapatriciated]

20. self delete

[Evergreen Emerald]

17. does he mean putting the people of WI first? Or putting Walker first?

I believe he either underestimated the importance of WI or he purposefully allowed the corporations to get the leg up.

Besides the victory for the WI workers, it would have been a moral victory for the little people all across the US who have been ignored by those in power. It would have been motivation to stand up against the tyranny of the corporations and of those repubs who have been dismantling unions across the US. It would have been a boon to his presidency as he sent a message telling us he was with us and separate from the corporations.

Instead, if the story is accurate that he discouraged the national dems from uniting behind the WI people, he sided with the corps and with the republicans and against us.

[JDPriestly]

18. If Social Security is scheduled to run out of money, why is Obama and needs to be cut,

why is Obama proposing to extend the cut in payroll taxes?

This is really dishonest in my view.

If Social Security is running out of money, we should raise the contributions to the system by changing the cap and raising payroll taxes.

Obama is being very, very sneaky about this.

He secretly opposes Social Security. If he supported it or was neutral, he would not propose yet another year of payroll tax cuts. Those tax cuts specifically weaken Social Security.

Why doesn't he cut some of our overseas military personnel and close some of our overseas military bases?

[unapatriciated]

21. self delete

[Angry Dragon]

30. The way I understand it is that the 2% cut is then

paid for by money out of the general fund (regular taxes)
The 2% is still paid into SS just comes from a different source

[Enthusiast]

36. "Obama is being very, very sneaky about this."

Well he ain't sneakin' it past me. I've got a long history with chicken thieves.

[libmom74]

22. I really hate that

I can't watch him speak anymore, I couldn't watch Bush at all but I used to watch all of Obama's speeches now blech, I just can't stomach it.

[Shining Jack]

24. Same here.

There's no way I'll click on that vid. :puke:

[Veracious]

26. Good Call President Obama

President Obama calling Congress out for their political partisan bull, while the country burns.:hi:

[anAustralianobserver]

27. There was no encouragement in that - he looks devastated - who can deny it??

He's going through the motions, talking to nobody! A phantom audience consisting of a generic 'American' who 'voted for divided government'.

He doesn't even care that people see how devastated he has become! That's how pathetic this situation is!

As for the people who think he's a Trojan horse - explain what he is getting out of this besides humiliation! Pardon the expression but they've got him by the balls (the back-room deals he was pressured and hoodwinked into and now owns) - it's as simple as that.

American isn't broken; it will recover. But this is the current state of your party (and political culture) - your president doesn't know what to do besides obliquely plead for your help, because he sure-as-hell is not going to publicly name names!


(PS. Also, it's absurd and insulting to say there isn't a country on earth that wouldn't swap places with the US. America is *just one of* a big bunch of countries that are 'best' to live in. My parents have lived in the US and Australia and are positively relieved they ultimately chose Australia - seeing how things have developed in the last few decades.)

[Enthusiast]

37. Maybe he isn't a Trojan Horse.

Maybe. The problem is we have to say maybe he is only being blackmailed or hoodwinked. Either way.

[grahamhgreen]

29. There is zero evidence these trade deals have created jobs, quite the opposite

Cold.

[liberalmike27]

32. 0 Zero

Zero (0). In fact, one can make the argument that both tax cuts to the rich, and trade agreements (that ship jobs away, at least the good ones workers have any control over, with unions) do indeed cut jobs, and increase the Trade Deficit.

[Enthusiast]

33. Extend the payroll tax cuts?

So deficit hawks can say social security is insolvent? $1000 more per year in their pay checks? Yee haw! Now they can afford four packs of cigarettes or a couple of six packs of beer a week. What planet does this guy live on? This doesn't stimulate shit. The American people would much rather protect social security and medicare, you complete dumb ass.

More trade agreements like the ones that already decimated the middle class?

With "Democrats" like this who needs Republicans?

Who in the fuck supports these trade agreements? No working class people favor these trade agreements. NONE! They will cost us millions of manufacturing jobs. No matter what the argument in favor of these agreement, the American people are completely opposed to them. This is not representative government. And Obama is leading the way. This is the only example of his leadership to be found, by the way.