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    HOWARD DAVIDOWITZ: Obama Doesn’t Have a Clue — Here’s How I Would Fix The Country

    When companies get into financial trouble, they usually fire current management, analyze and streamline their operations, and restructure their debts.

    America is currently in financial trouble, but the only step in the turnaround process that we seem to be capable of taking is firing current management (see the recent midterm elections). After that, it's just finger-pointing and bloviating and business as usual.

    Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates and a long-time critic of our government, is positively appalled by the turnaround approach taken by the current administration, which is to spend more money.

    Davidowitz thinks President Obama is a "moron" and worries about a looming dollar crisis that will take the market down at least 6,000 points (50%).

    I asked Davidowitz what he would do if he were president.

    How would he fix our financial problems without crushing our economy? How would he create jobs? How would he avoid the current fate of the UK, which pursued an "austerity" plan only to see its economy plunge back into recession?

    President Davidowitz says, he would immediately eliminate the Bush tax cuts. (He thinks Bush was an idiot, too, by the way). He would then address the real cause of our financial problems: Entitlement spending, specifically, Medicare and Medicaid. He would avert a dollar crisis. He would also cut military spending.

    Would these moves hurt the economy? Yes, Davidowitz says, in the short-term, they might. But in the long-term, they'd be a huge step in the right direction. Our international trading partners and investors would see immediately that we had finally gotten serious about addressing our problems, and this would lead to a surge in the dollar and direct investment. And the investment, in turn, would produce the jobs that we so desperately need. And they would avert a dollar crisis that Davidowitz views as looming catastrophe.

    See Also: Why Howard Davidowitz And Other Debt Hawks Think The US Is Screwed

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    733 comments

    • Pattecakes  •  1 year 2 months ago
      Entitlement programs? How about all the "give-away" programs that those who WON'T work or the illegals in this country benefit from. Not to mention all the ENTITLEMENTS Congress provides for themselves!
    • Obama the Great  •  1 year 2 months ago
      Do a fact check, the official US Treasury website shows that the US NEVER ran a surplus under Clinton.

      Clinton-Gingrich 'borrowed' money from over a dozen government programs to pay other government expenses. They took this money from things like Social Security and Military Pensions to give an appearance that the budget was balanced. This borrowed money has yet to be paid back.

      The overall national debt increased every year under Clinton, when you count the Social Security, Military Pension, etc... money that he took and we still have to pay back.
      • JOE WOO 1 year 2 months ago
        Grow up you ignorant @#$% .
      • Obama the Great 1 year 2 months ago
        Are you disputing the official US Bureau of Public Debt stats that say that the national debt has grown every single year since 1960?

        Are you disputing the official US Treasury stats that say that the national debt increased every year under Clinton?

        Are you disputing the official stats that show that Clinton-Gingrich borrowed over 200 Billion per year from Social Security and other programs to give us their "balanced" budget?

        Don't be a blind partisan.
      • JOE WOO 1 year 2 months ago
        You know for someone in Michigan you seem to be venting towards the wrong group , where was Ford's share price prior to Genius getting in there ? why is it I can pick up houses there for as little as $10,000 ? why is you've experienced such a drastic economic downturn due to outsourcing and plant closings ? tell me please who was in charge then ? yes we know its getting " better " there it couldn't have gotten any worse . Go fly a kite .
    • A Yahoo! User  •  1 year 2 months ago
      I'm tired of all this talk about cutting my social security. Why are social security and medicare called "entitlement" while public worker pensions are called "contracts"? I wonder how many of us put a larger percentage of our pay into social security and medicare than public workers contribute to their pension? I believe social security and medicare are a "contract" we were forced to pay. If social security and medicare are cut lets also cut the public worker pension. Shared sacrifice for all.
      • istartedi 1 year 2 months ago
        Medicare would be a lot less expensive if the "health insurance" and drug companies hadn't captured the government. 1. Lobby government to get patent on drug that already exists (e.g., colchicine). 2. Get patent and up the price by 1000% (not kidding). 3. Charge to Medicare.

        That's the real problem, not the entitlements themselves, which would actually be quite reasonable if you could dismantle the corporate influence system.
      • Citizen 1 year 2 months ago
        Good point. Govt employees are still getting double digit pay raises in addition to paying next to nothing for health care and their pensions while the rest of us are suckin it up out here in this crap economy obummer has created.
      • A Yahoo! User 1 year 2 months ago
        Because SS benefits are not based completely on earnings, the minimum is way too high and the max is too low compared to the person's actual earnings. So there is a big welfare part to the monthly amount paid.
    • Common Sense  •  1 year 2 months ago
      Unfortunately, the morons in DC do not have the brains or the balls to do this.
      • Ed_B 1 year 2 months ago
        Yeah, you'd think that they weren't hired to make the tough decisions or something.
    • Martin S  •  1 year 2 months ago
      Davidowitz blames Obama and did not blame the congress? Davidowitz is an idiot.Davidowitz blames Obama and did not blame the congress? Davidowitz is an idiot.
      a profound statement. Obama is a @#$% walking down the street. It is congress and the state
      legislatures that got us in this problem. quit using the banks. start paying cash for everything.
      expect less. Obama is not qualified to manage. until someone gets elected with some leadership skills the economy will be flat or headed south.
      • Coach Matthew 1 year 2 months ago
        He's blaming Obama because he is the president - the buck stops with him not congress. As much as congress is a sham the republicrats and democans are one in the same.
    • FoxNuwsRTraitors  •  1 year 2 months ago
      Obama tried to do one thing this guy proposed - ending the Bush tax cuts - for the rich only - and he was unable to get the GOP to agree. This one initiative by Obama did not have the required support in Congress. So Dravidowitz saying he will end the Bush tax cuts for all - is just blowing smoke. It would never happen - but I agree that it should. In this case Dravidowitz seems to be attacking Obama because it's in fashion.

      Second, Social Security is self funding and has no long term effect on US debt or deficits. Dravidowitz is completely wrong that we need major changes to SS. Without any changes, even when the trust fund is bankrupt in 20 years, retirees will still receive about 80% of promised benefits with the payroll taxes annually collected then. With a few small tweaks - like raising the retirement age 1-2 years, ending benefits for the wealthy, and collecting SS taxes on all income - then all non-wealthy retirees will still be able to collect 100% of promised benefits. SS is not the problem. Again, Dravidowitz is attacking SS because it's in fashion.
    • merlispro  •  1 year 2 months ago
      arrest this a$$hole as a terrorist - it is what he is just feeding off the misery of others.

      what exactly is it that this idiot creates except illicit profits from scraping wealth from others.

      bottom feeding slug
    • Clarice  •  1 year 2 months ago
      How much could we save if all the elected officials gave up their perks, like free health care. They are talking about cutting health care for the elderly and children and no COLA for retirees again this year. If we, who are footing the bill for all their freebies, have to tighten our belts again shouldn't the government tighten theirs? But then what do we know? We are just the serfs.
      • alex 1 year 2 months ago
        In the grand scheme of things, you would save almost nothing.
      • SeanH 1 year 2 months ago
        That would shave off about, maybe, a few hundred million from our budget. Or about a month's worth of interest on our pile of debt.
    • No job  •  1 year 2 months ago
      Here's the problem, plain and simple. we have CAREER congressmen and senators making laws and trying to balance a budget and have lost COMPLETE contact with the public and stayed focused on their own pet projects. Not a one of them has a clue how to balance a budget. Just look at their personal finances.All they know is to RAISE taxes where they can get raises and perpetuate their extravagant lifestyle. They want us to work, give the money to them to dole out at their discretion. I'm 66 years old and am very tired of this system. These OLD so-called leaders need to be put out to pasture now. They can't even remember what the outside world was like. Term limits not career politicians.
    • neversink  •  1 year 2 months ago
      When it comes to having a strong dollar and inflation and the real unemployment numbers, Davidowitz is right. We have to stop printing money.

      The whole notion of a housing recovery is wrong, though. Housing doesn't need a recovery. We are in a recovery. Lower housing prices should be the norm. Everyone thinks we should go back to housing prices of 2008. It was a housing bubble. And it needed to be busted. Now prices are becoming a little more sane, but they may still actually be too high. We have too many houses for the amount of people who can afford them right now. That is a market reality.

      We also need to get rid of corporate welfare. Oil companies don't need subsidies. Neither does the lumber industry nor big agriculture including the tobacco company. Our subsidies to corporations are outrageous. First we need to cut these. Then we need to deal with taxes. We need to have one flat tax where everyone making over some figure (say $45,000) pays the same tax and then anyone making over another number (say $1,000,000) pays an additional one percent for every million they make.

      Then we need to get out of Afghanistan and save two billion smackers a day.

      We certainly don't need to attack the most vulnerable members of society who already live on the edge.
    • Habib  •  1 year 2 months ago
      the problem is not with the entitlement programs, but with the abuse of those programs.. every program (unemployment, section 8 housing, link cards, ss, disability, medicare, medicade, student financial aid etc) has abuse in it which i would guess makes up 20 - 35% of the cost. if you get rid of the abuse - problem solved. and yes also get rid of abusive unions, politicians, corporation, etc etc... good luck!!!
    • Lee  •  1 year 2 months ago
      A bunch of freshmen accounting students could come up with a balanced budget in a couple of days. The problem is political. There are very few politicians in Washington that have the political courage to do what needs to be done. It's our fault for electing these cowards.

      Personally, I promise never to vote for an incumbent from either party until the budget deficit is fixed. If everyone made this promise, the budget would be balanced in no time.
    • KennethB  •  1 year 2 months ago
      In 2010, I do not recall voting for higher gas prices, higher unemployment, more debt and more wars and after 2 years I am not buying it is Bush's fault. I hope we can find a real leader in 2012.
    • DAVID V  •  1 year 2 months ago
      i don't pay anybody any attention that calls social security an entitlement program. i have paid in since i was 14. the return on my investment is so small that the fed. should be makeing a very nice return off of me.
    • rjamesho  •  1 year 2 months ago
      The problem with our entitlement programs is that, those who contributed very little is getting a lot out of it; and those who are contributing a lot may not see any of it later.
    • Jay  •  1 year 2 months ago
      suggestion for a bumper sticker "WHO NEEDS TERRORISTS, WE HAVE POLITICIANS"
    • Winston Smith  •  1 year 2 months ago
      It is not "we" that is printing money. It is the Federal Reserve. Read "The Creature from Jeckyl Island" . This guy is a shill for the oligarchs pushing austerity measures. These parasites want to squeeze every last drop of blood out of the people.
    • Radia  •  1 year 2 months ago
      There are many complexities to the situation that we have. Going with Obama or Bush having no clue is a bit extreme. Inherently, it's a the negative side to our political system. Our court, via "interpreting" our constitution, allows for lobbying. Lobbying is where I see one major point of our issues. Our politicians have don't have a true dedication and focus to make the patriotic decisions. I'm not saying that they are not patriotic. They are just easily influenced by lobbying. Our courts handcuff our politicians when the courts allow for lobbying. It would be hard for politicians to stay in power to see their plans through. With enough money, votes are affected and truly dedicated politicians that are doing what's right, get voted out. Whereas one's that are doing what gets more political funding stay in power. If this is not true, why are so many companies spending so much on lobbying and not on R&D and benefits. To me, I feel that lobbying is a form of bribery. What makes it so different than corruption in many other countries? If you say it's open, look at how hard companies and PAC's try to hide it with their names. Yes, some do get uncovered, but those are the rare ones, and they only have influence if the general public actually pays attention.

      For this critic, what is my suggestion? No more lobbying money for media (TV, radio, internet). This means people can write on their own, but not be hired to do so. Each US Citizen is allowed to donate $100 for each candidate. No PAC (corporations, foundations, charities, etc.) donations, political parties, nor anything similar. Also, avoids indirect influences from foreign countries. Do we really think that foreign investments in our companies, do have indirect influence with our government? We need to have our politicians working for our country. Make the hard choices. We need our political parties to just be fighting on almost every issue. Compromising and agreeing on what's right is not that hard. There is a lot of black and white issues, not everything is grey.

      I pray for our country.
    • John  •  1 year 2 months ago
      "Live now, pay later" has been around a LONG time. It's a freakin' Foghat song from 1981! Any loud mouth 'prophet' can rail against the current or former presidents...
      But the truth is that this American trainwreck has been coming for decades. Post WWII economic supremacy is over. (We literally bombed out the competition in the 1940's...) 'Pay later' has become 'pay now' and everyone wants to blame someone, anyone for something that has been part of OUR culture for 2-3 generations. We are responsible, our parents were responsible, even our grandparents if you're young enough. The entire USA lived beyond its means. Empire in decline...not the first time thoughout history, and it won't be the last...
    • Winston Smith  •  1 year 2 months ago
      Thousands and thousands of dollars were stolen from me in the form of FICA taxes over the years and Social Security was promised to me. Yeah, I feel I'm "entitled" to it. I paid for it.

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