Hewlett-Packard Company Message Board
-
Obama: Contrasting What's Happening Now with Prior Decades
America has been slowly becoming more indebted, more consumption oriented, bigger entitlements and less competitive since the 1960s. Beyond 2009, that wasn't Obama's fault.
What is different about the past 4 years is that the process has accelerated exponentially, and there are extraordinarily frantic measures being applied to counter the fact that Obama's socialist thrust isn't working and GDP is barely growing in spite of both massive fiscal and massive monetary stimulus.
Some of the things about the past 4 years that are un-precedented:
1. Obama's takeover of the healthcare and student lending systems are the largest, peacetime expansion of government in decades.
2. Trillion dollar deficits are by far, unprecedented. One could reasonably blame those deficits in 2009 and 2010 on Bush/Reid/Pelosi, but what has become the slowest, post-recession recovery in American history under Obama is arguably responsible for all that have occurred since.
3. 0% fed funds rate and QE3 and Operation Twist are not only un-precedented, monetary stimulus but it is unprecedented by a huge magnitude. We have NEVER printed money to this extent or for this long.
4. The U.S. Senate has never before gone 3 years without passing a budget. Without executive leadership, Congress is essentially flat-lined and in dis-array. That has never happened during any other presidential administration.
5. Capital Spending in the U.S. is at a 50 year low. The Labor participation rate in the U#$%$ an all-time low last september and remains very close to that low today... both virtually unprecedented in any prior administration.
6. Corporations have never before hoarded so much cash overseas and refused to re-patriate it to the U.S. The "capital flight" of investment capital by wealthy americans is running at record levels.
7. We've never had a president more averse to cutting federal spending. After campaigning on a "balanced" approach, we've passed one, large, $600 million tax increase and all the president has talked about since we did that is MORE tax increases.
There is nothing about what is happening now that gives me any hope for the future. If Obama's 2nd term is similar to his first one, and every indication he is giving is that it will be even MORE of the hard-left policies we saw in his first term...
.... then we're heading for bankruptcy, and there's nothing that will be able to stop it.-
1. Obama is restoring a government prerogative. Federal student loans used to be doled out directly by the government. Originally they were the National Defense Student Loans (passed in Ike's second term, so we could keep up with the Russkies and their Sputnik). Later the name was changed to National Direct Student Loan.
2. Deficits as a percent of GDP are hardly unprecedented. Nice try making inflation do your dirty work.
Wanting to be liked kept Obama from asking what he thought necessary, and the GOPPERS didn't even give him what he asked for. Boehner and McConnell need to be added to the Hall of Shame.
3. Greenspan started this low low interest rate thing, and Bernanke et al are too stupid to stop it.
4. The GOP Senators can stop or block any initiative presented to the Senate, and the Dem Senators can block anything they don't like. So it's a tie here.
5. The job creators are not creating jobs, so they should be penalized in consequence. Let them move to Red China or Russia.
6. See 5
7. Europe has shown over and over again that governments cannot cut their way out of a recession.
America's credit rating lies in its power to tax. The key to avoiding bankruptcy is in our hands -- raise the capital gains tax rate to 25%, and exempt the first $10K of capital gains.- 1 Reply to exhpa
-
Pure hot air/ nothing more. The left keeps trying to defend the undefendable. Face it - Obama is not a leader. He's an ineffective bumbler that managed to dupe a majority twice. He's a clown -only know as Obamacare and other of his abominations come to light the public is finally figuring it out.
-