Just a reminder: President Obama is NOT the reason that 9.8% are unemployed

[Politics_Guy25]

That is all.

Just think people like Ed Schultz need to be reminded of that.

Back to work for me.

[rucky]

1. Anger's at Wall Street and the banksters today.

right where it should be.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL & Republicon FAIL Cronies

[JuniperLea]

3. And he said it would get worse before it got better...

I'm sick of people right now. Damn sick.

[redqueen]

9. Yeah but he said that cause he WANTS it to get worse!

Cause he's just getting RICH while naive fools TRUST that these people wants to make things BETTER but they DON'T CARE about us AT ALL!

/loony


I go back and forth from amused to disgusted to just feeling pity... I wish I could just pick one and stick with it.

[JuniperLea]

21. I'm suffering the same sort of emotional whiplash...

I just hope we don't go numb.

[gateley]

4. And he's also not the reason that our country is going broke and owes so

much to China and others. (As Biden said, China owns the mortgage on our house.)

I don't understand why people aren't making these (and other) examples over and over and over.

[truedelphi]

5. I am sorry but even someone self taught about economic matters understands that

The Fianacial Coup d'etat that was featured on last weeks' Bill Moyers' show is in large part due to Obama. Kaptur and Simon were most excellent in detailing the crime.

Obama rallied the Democrats around Bush's Oct 2008 Bailout Plan. And then, immediately upon being inaugurated, he installed Bernanke, that pathetic scum bag (With apologies to other scumbags everywhere!) into Paulson's position.

This has allowed for a major heist of Main Street's dollars. Two trillion directly to banks of various sorts - especially the Big Three.

And it is now the government of Goldman Sachs, by Goldman Sachs and for Goldman Sachs.

Two trillio0n dolalas could have been divied up by the government and apportioned tot he individual states, such taht those states with surplus balances would hav e more surplus. The twenty five states (or it may be more, now) who are in trouble with their budget could ahve avoided layoffs.

Instead, we have the Wall Street crowd buying up twenty billion dollar banks in other countries. Whoopee! Dow at 10,000 and goodie for them.

Not so goodie for the rest of us.

[JonQ]

6. No he isn't, but

he did make the promise that his bailout bill would prevent unemployment rates getting this high. So for that he can be held accountable.

[Pirate Smile]

8. You are confusing the bailout bill and the Stimulus/Recovery Act.

[JonQ]

31. Alright, same comment

switch the acts.

[Stand and Fight]

7. No, he's not -- nor has he done anything to significantly reduce it.

However, giving billions of TAX PAYER dollars to the clowns responsible for this fiasco is beyond the pale when Americans are faced with losing their homes and livelihoods. I had truly hoped that I was misplaced in my estimation of the president's overt willingness to be the nice guy, but now I see that perhaps I was too quick to quiet my reservations. I'm of the mind that the president has had plenty of time in office to have made some significant changes to business regulation, health care and the wars -- in short he could have done more to help the American people. Just the same, I'm of the same mind that President George W. Bush could have done more to prevent 9/11 from happening, but he failed to do so and very few people call him on it. While the two events are dissimilar, I don't give Bush a pass on his 9/11 screw-up and I don't give Obama a pass on his either. At this point, he's been in office just as long as Bush had been. The president has decided to surround himself with Wall Street operators and other industry special interest -- all the while the American people continue to suffer. He may not be the reason that 9.8% are unemployed (and that's not even the REAL number I remind you), but he hasn't done enough to counter the effects of it. If anyone says there's nothing he could have done, I say bullshit. We have only to look at another great Democrat -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

FLAME AWAY.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

11. No flaming from me

You are unfortunately dead right.

[Stand and Fight]

13. I guess I'm just a little fed up with how vile and rude people act on here.

Many long time DUers won't admit it, but a fair amount of them are just as blind in their support of the president as those they so often mocked as "sheeple" or "ditto-heads" in years now past.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

17. Yeah

I posted something similar today on another thread. When the Iraq war started going south and Katrina happened you had the Bush syncophants on the right continuing to defend Bush no matter what was in the news. I am not comparing what is going on now with those things but the mindset is similar.

[Hello_Kitty]

25. And then you have the Wall Street Humping MBA Brigade here as well.

The Glorious Almighty Market can never be wrong. No matter how many times it is. Hey, they're portfolios look good, on account of they're such savvy investors, and they'll tell us peons how the economy really works.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. If you ignore the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, sure.

If you ignore that projections were for unemployment to be well into the teens if not for Obama, sure.

[Stand and Fight]

19. I have not come across those figures, could you please post them?

If I am wrong, I would definitely like to be correct in my statements. Thanks in advance.

[girl gone mad]

20. Wrong.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

22. Yeah, I've seen that graph.

It's popping up on all the RW blog sites

So far the ARRA's saved about a million jobs, and it's just getting started.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091012/ap_on_go_ot/us_stimulus_jobs

[girl gone mad]

24. So what if it's on RW blogs? It's a graph produced by the Obama administration..

http://otrans.3cdn.net/45593e8ecbd339d074_l3m6bt1te.pdf

and the red line was added by Calculated Risk, a highly respected financial blog.

Just admit that you pulled the high teens number out of your ass and now you're taking a White House press release as gospel.

[sendero]

28. No flame here..

... you are exactly correct. Obama could not be handling the economic mess any worse. And soon he will be held to account for that - regardless of who created this mess (of the two parties mostly Republicans) - he was elected to fix it and instead he's just compounding the injustices.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. No flames from me. nt

[grahamhgreen]

10. No, it's NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and not practicing safe-economics (not using protectionist policies)

[Hello_Kitty]

26. But...but...protectionism is EEEEVIL!!1!

And Free Trade^TM has worked out so well!

[grahamhgreen]

27. What was I thinking! Eeeeeeeevil!!!!!!!

[Ozymanithrax]

12. But Obama and Democrats will pay for it if Unemployment doesn't come down...

by November 2010.

People won't vote agaisnt Bush in 2010, they will vote for their economic interest. If Obama and the Democrats don't convince people that they have a hold on the unemployment problem, they will be voted down.

[Stand and Fight]

14. As well they should. n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

16. Though I don't care to see Republicans come screaming back in power...

The only way to punish a political party in our winner take all system is remove them from power. That is one of the bad points about our political system.

In a multiparty parlimentary system, there is always a party close to the one anybody belongs to, where they can take their vote. In our system, third parties are spoilers.

[Stand and Fight]

18. The Democrats have only to do the following to remain a permanent power:

1. Begin a media blitz on all networks and major publications -- including LTTEs explaining how vital it is to take the money out of running for office. Go on to explain how monied interest have corrupted the politics of this country to such an extent that those we elect to represent us -- while good people -- are nonetheless human and are all too tempted, all too often, by the money that big corporations and lobbyist throw at them. Get our message out their before the shrill voices of the right-wingers start up, and anticipate all of their arguments.

2. Put together STRONG campaign finance reform that would make it a crime for anyone running for office to take political contributions or gifts from corporations or lobbyist. On that same token, limit campaign contributions to $2,000 per individual. No more money from special interest groups, corporations, etc. Furthermore, anyone found giving or taking money under the table will be charged with a felony and if found guilty will be forced to pay a fine no greater than ten times the amount they were attempted to give/take and also the possibility of prison time. As a part of this, a special branch of the government would be created to oversee politicians campaign finances.

3. Put into law a living wage -- not a minimum wage -- that would be set based upon the previous fiscal year for the average cost of living on state-by-state basis. A national "base" living wage would be set that would function much like the current minimum wage in the fact that business could pay more, but not less, than the federal living wage. As to those concerned about how this would effect small businesses...

4. Businesses of certain sizes would receive immediate reduced taxes to help offset the costs of the living wage. Furthermore, businesses that hire Americans would be afforded tax credits to help keep American jobs in America. Of course, this all takes a healthy work force.

5. Enact health care reform -- not health insurance reform -- with a strong public option that ANYONE can buy into at ANYTIME based on a sliding scale of cost not to exceed 5% of GROSS income. In case where the individual makes only the living wage (whatever that is determined to be), said person(s) would receive a tax credit equal to 2.5% of their gross income.

Thoughts?

[JoeyT]

23. Hmm.

While that's a good idea, I'm guessing they'd be more willing and able to call down magical fire from the sky and incinerate their opponents.

The reason they'll never back any of that stuff is because, while they may lose power now, their turn will come again. All that might jeopardize their lucrative lobbying jobs when they're no longer in power, so that isn't helping.

I agree with you, but they don't especially care what we think. :/

[Ozymanithrax]

29. Nobody maintains a permanent lock on power. Just ask Turd blossom.

(1-2) Campaign finance reform is a good idea, but will not add jobs. When people don't have work and can't find work, they don't give a damn about who finances campaigns. Refer to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If people don't have work or food they won't worry about higher levels of consciousness.
Trying to focus people on Campaign finance is, in this case, a classic bait and switch. No party will ever pass truly comprehensive campaign reform. They will not shit in the plate they eat from.

(3-4) Living wage is also a good idea, but exactly how do you get that passed, and in what time frame. The congress and Senate have been consumed by the Health Care Debate. Even if you could get it passed, something I seriously doubt, it would not come up until next year. Pass it by the end of the end of the year (I will be generous) and in 2011 you would start to see changes int he wages. This will not add jobs in the time frame. We need to see the unemployment come start to creep back down. Also, those small businesses you (...) would be the most fervently against the plan. At a time when they need to add to the numbers being employed you are taking away money that would be used to hire new employees. Business already deduct wages (business expense) from the gross before determining how much they need to pay on profit. This tax makes no sense and doesn't add one job.

(5) They are currently working on health care reform. We will be lucky if it has any public option. Passing a bill (any bill) will be good for Democrats, but doesn't add jobs. What we really need is national health care, but that has as much a chance of passing as what you describe, which is none.

The Republicans are already running on a platform of Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Even if they have no intention of delivering (which is my opinion) that is very smart. They can read the numbers as well as anybody. They no employment is a lagging indicator in an economy, that eve if we have started back up out of the hole created by Republic economic policies, it will take time. Time is on their side.

We need jobs.

[dysfunctional press]

30. he's also not the reason that the unemployment rate is going down.

because it isn't.