STIMULUS PACKAGEPresident Obama made his first national TV address to the nation to explain (and sell) the stimulus package being debated in the Congress. Here is my interpretation of his presentation:
1. President Obama was very well prepared and, as we learned during the election, is very well spoken. He has a way of presenting his objectives in such a way that it sounds very logical and to think otherwise would be irresponsible or unfair or just plain mean.
2. The President pointed out again and again and then reemphasized and restated that the entire problem is President Bush's fault (without mentioning his name). The economy was running along just fine in 2006 when the Democrats took control of Congress which happens to control the checkbook of the government. Sure, the Bush Administration can share in the blame for the current financial crisis but it is quite unfair to lay the entire economy at the feet of President Bush. Not to mention, Senator Obama was part of the governing body the past 4 years.
3. The President is either attempting to deceive the American public or he does not have a strong understanding of the root of the problem. (Of course, the latter is absurd. )Yes, the recession started during the past couple of years. Yes, the problem was as a result of the banks making a lot of irresponsible loans. Yes, banks did use unacceptable accounting to value the assets on their books. BUT, the banks using these unacceptable practices were Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac (virtually government run banks) after Republican members of Congress and the President (Bush) repeatedly made pleas to the House Banking Committee to reform these institutions only to be thwarted by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. These two institutions were buying any loan only encouraging banks to make more and more no matter how sound the loan.
In addition, the reason the banking community was making these loans was because of the pressure applied by the Congress through the FDIC in the Community Reinvestment Act signed by President Carter in 1977. Banks were forced to make loans to individuals who did not meet their standards in order to keep their FDIC insurance, essential to any banking operation in America.
4. Every time the government spends money they are stimulating the economy. True, but buying condoms for teenagers is not an effective use of funds to stimulate the economy. You can say there are no pet projects in the bill using this ideology but realistically these type of expenditures are policies to change the political direction and not to "stimulate" the economy.
5. Speaking as a true liberal, the President believes all the answers lie within the confounds of the government. Although government policy helped create the current problem, more government plans is the only way to fix the problem. Or as I say, every problem the government tries to fix they create more in their wake. There is a philosophical difference (which he referenced) in how to stimulate the economy. We can have the government spend money on what they want or we can give the money back to the ones who actually earned it to determine how they want to spend it. Either way will stimulate the economy.
6. As we heard in his inauguration speech, "we chose hope over fear" but in an attempt to get the American public behind his stimulus plan he used fear. He stated that if we do not act soon the recession may be irreversible. Does that sound like fear? When things were not going as he had hoped, the politician came out and pulled the good ole' fear card off the bottom of the deck.
7. Bipartisanship is alive and well. President Obama took a fair amount of time trying to paint the Republicans as partisan. He also threw in a few "old habits are hard to break" to make it sound like he wants to work with his opponents, bjt then he still spent a lot of effort to pit the American people against the Republicans on the first true legislative battle. After all, he did declare in his first week or two in office, "I won the election."
1. President Obama was very well prepared and, as we learned during the election, is very well spoken. He has a way of presenting his objectives in such a way that it sounds very logical and to think otherwise would be irresponsible or unfair or just plain mean.
2. The President pointed out again and again and then reemphasized and restated that the entire problem is President Bush's fault (without mentioning his name). The economy was running along just fine in 2006 when the Democrats took control of Congress which happens to control the checkbook of the government. Sure, the Bush Administration can share in the blame for the current financial crisis but it is quite unfair to lay the entire economy at the feet of President Bush. Not to mention, Senator Obama was part of the governing body the past 4 years.
3. The President is either attempting to deceive the American public or he does not have a strong understanding of the root of the problem. (Of course, the latter is absurd. )Yes, the recession started during the past couple of years. Yes, the problem was as a result of the banks making a lot of irresponsible loans. Yes, banks did use unacceptable accounting to value the assets on their books. BUT, the banks using these unacceptable practices were Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac (virtually government run banks) after Republican members of Congress and the President (Bush) repeatedly made pleas to the House Banking Committee to reform these institutions only to be thwarted by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd. These two institutions were buying any loan only encouraging banks to make more and more no matter how sound the loan.
In addition, the reason the banking community was making these loans was because of the pressure applied by the Congress through the FDIC in the Community Reinvestment Act signed by President Carter in 1977. Banks were forced to make loans to individuals who did not meet their standards in order to keep their FDIC insurance, essential to any banking operation in America.
4. Every time the government spends money they are stimulating the economy. True, but buying condoms for teenagers is not an effective use of funds to stimulate the economy. You can say there are no pet projects in the bill using this ideology but realistically these type of expenditures are policies to change the political direction and not to "stimulate" the economy.
5. Speaking as a true liberal, the President believes all the answers lie within the confounds of the government. Although government policy helped create the current problem, more government plans is the only way to fix the problem. Or as I say, every problem the government tries to fix they create more in their wake. There is a philosophical difference (which he referenced) in how to stimulate the economy. We can have the government spend money on what they want or we can give the money back to the ones who actually earned it to determine how they want to spend it. Either way will stimulate the economy.
6. As we heard in his inauguration speech, "we chose hope over fear" but in an attempt to get the American public behind his stimulus plan he used fear. He stated that if we do not act soon the recession may be irreversible. Does that sound like fear? When things were not going as he had hoped, the politician came out and pulled the good ole' fear card off the bottom of the deck.
7. Bipartisanship is alive and well. President Obama took a fair amount of time trying to paint the Republicans as partisan. He also threw in a few "old habits are hard to break" to make it sound like he wants to work with his opponents, bjt then he still spent a lot of effort to pit the American people against the Republicans on the first true legislative battle. After all, he did declare in his first week or two in office, "I won the election."
8. Joe Biden still talks his Florsheim's in his mouth and the President threw him under the bus. BTW - I think this is the first time the President has ever taken a question from Fox News.
As I have said since President Obama was elected, we have the perfect socialism storm. Blame everything people have problems with on the past administration and capitalism and make all the changes to government run industries. Health care cost has continued to rise so let the government take it over and all will be fixed which in all honesty a single payer system removes competition and reduces efficiencies. Lets be honest, removing paper from the system will not make huge savings realized in reduced premiums.
If the economy does not show any marked improvement, it will be said that the Bush recession was deeper than anticipated and the government will pass more legislation, taking control of more of the private sector and moving us closer to the socialistic side of the the spectrum. If the economy makes some improvement it will be because the policies are working and that will give the Democrats and the President a green light to pass more liberal policies accomplishing the same thing objective, more socialism.
In case you have any questions, the reason socialism is bad is because it takes away the individuals rights and responsibilities. It reduces the incentive to work hard to get ahead because there will be less benefit for the effort. And most importantly, it makes more people dependent upon the government for their well being giving the government more and more power which is exactly why I believe many politicians choose their political ideology. Just remember, more power always leads to more abuse.
As I have said since President Obama was elected, we have the perfect socialism storm. Blame everything people have problems with on the past administration and capitalism and make all the changes to government run industries. Health care cost has continued to rise so let the government take it over and all will be fixed which in all honesty a single payer system removes competition and reduces efficiencies. Lets be honest, removing paper from the system will not make huge savings realized in reduced premiums.
If the economy does not show any marked improvement, it will be said that the Bush recession was deeper than anticipated and the government will pass more legislation, taking control of more of the private sector and moving us closer to the socialistic side of the the spectrum. If the economy makes some improvement it will be because the policies are working and that will give the Democrats and the President a green light to pass more liberal policies accomplishing the same thing objective, more socialism.
In case you have any questions, the reason socialism is bad is because it takes away the individuals rights and responsibilities. It reduces the incentive to work hard to get ahead because there will be less benefit for the effort. And most importantly, it makes more people dependent upon the government for their well being giving the government more and more power which is exactly why I believe many politicians choose their political ideology. Just remember, more power always leads to more abuse.
Read what some economists say about government stimulus plans.
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/010709-rep-boehner-questions-stimulus-strategy
(And on a side note, it is time for Helen Thomas to retire.)
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