Cashman.....What would YOU do in the same circumstance following the Bush administration, near depression and health care OUT THE ROOF!....Put yourself in Obama's shoes....You are President now, let's hear how you would recover from this mess.....Lord help us all!....All the finger-pointing in the world will not turn this around!

Originally Posted by jebartle

Sallyjo, Think you need to reread ijusluvits post one more time....
Saratogaman and Ijustluvit, Atta boy!...I was beginning to believe that a positive feedback was impossible....

Let's me ask this question in another way and see if positive feedback is possible...

If you were given this tall task of cleaning up a giant mess that occurred during the previous administration of 8 years, What would YOU do to correct our devastating economy and health care system?

Like asking Noah for positive feedback on the Flood, "Well, we needed the rain..." , or Jonah about the whale, "At least I didn't drown..".

To address your revised question, I would probably start by trying to increase the unemployment rate of Government employees to at least 30% or more up to maybe 60%. Gov't jobs do not help the economy. I would have to look at ways to improve existing programs and phase out what doesn't work, instead of throwing more money and agencies into failed ideas. I would like to stop rewarding unions and union policies that reward tenure above ability. "too big to fail' should not be in our vocabulary or mind-set. I would be a strong proponent of 'Term Limits'. Twelve years as a senator and eight as a representative is more than enough time to get something GOOD accomplished. It should never be a life-long career. Let them get out in the real world and live under the laws they pass. Maybe if we put them into the social security and medicare 'pot' they wouldn't be so quick to raid the funds and reduce benefits. I know I would certainly have preferred to have had a job with a salary of 100k/yr + benefits for 12-18 yrs & keep that for me & mine the rest of my life. Even better than being a meteorologist & predicting the weather. (be wrong 50% of the time & still have a job ) Social Security could be looked at for ways to be more under personal control. Many good ideas have been floated (and sunk) that would make it less beholden to powers-that-be. Finally, for now, and it should be FIRST on the list, SECURE THE BORDERS!!!!! Immigration is fine. No problem there! ILLEGAL immigration is NOT!!! Illegal is not just a large, sick BIRD! Every country in the world does it, Why can't we? Even Mexico enforces their southern border with lethal force, and all that the people crossing there are doing is trying to get through Mexico to cross into the U.S!
Is that a good enough list for starters JE?

Originally Posted by saratogaman

Much of what you claim is frequently and loudly by those who have any Democrat. Time and time again, their claims and assertions have been shown to be untrue. Let's try one more time:
Health care is not under government control...availability of health insurance was broadened...that's all...and our Medicare is government-sponsored health insurance that we pay for every month and we pick the providers. Period.
Two of the big 3 automakers were saved (and several hundred thousand jobs, as well) by the temporary infusion of public money. Much of it has already been paid back and GMs IPO (initial stock offering) this summer will likely result in full payback (and possibly a profit) and sole ownership by the stockholders. The American auto industry has been saved and cleaned up. There's a problem with that? The trucking industry was not involved.
The financial industry was not taken over by the government. Starting under President Bush, the government loaned money to save the industry from total collapse. Most of it has been paid back...some with interest.
You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own set of facts.

Everything that is in your post is a mirage, all smoke and mirrors using taxpayers money. This incompetent is boosting and propping up all the above by trible-ing the deficit.
This house of cards will all fall down eventually. No new jobs. This incompetent is the biggest job killer in history.
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/barack-o...-97758294.html

Great ideas BUT, HOW do you convince CONGRESS to term limitations, good luck on that one!....I agree that government is too big, but when BIGGNESS rules, how do you change the rules, too many FAT CATS, change the cats, how do you hold the new cats to the new rules when they are still making the rules!...Ugh!
Unions were originally to benefit the "little guy", when did that change?
Obama is only one person, I know he has a majority in congress, but for some reason, it doesn't seem to make any difference....because congress is NOT accountable!
I'd like to see Bills pass in congress on their own merit, instead of all the perks for individual congressman to please their lobbyist!!! And I'd love to see the end of the lobbyist!....And certainly last but not least, when will all parties join together for the good of the American people, yea Right, good luck with that one also!!!....
Incidently, I don't believe that BP should nurture a new generation of welfare recipients, granted they need to give them a boost but NOT a new generation of "gimme somthin for nuthin"....
Immigration, what a hot topic!...We need them to do the jobs that Americans don't want to do, BUT, when they become criminals, that is another story...Obviously securing the borders is difficult at best BUT it can be done!

I'm not a big Bush fan. And I'm even less of a fan of Bush being blamed for everything. But let's look at some facts when talking about Obama and what he inherited when he came into office.

This is an excellent article that should give everyone defending Obama food for thought; especially when continuing to play the Bush Blame Game.

By Keith Hennessey: This debate about the past can continue ad nauseam. At some point I hope it ends, but the President and his team bring it up at every opportunity. It is strange for a President to complain repeatedly about ten-year old policies and then not propose to change them. More importantly, this debate is not relevant to the problems we face today.

Yes, President Obama faced some enormous economic challenges early in his term. His predecessor did as well, even before the crisis of 2008: a bursting tech bubble leading to a recession in 2001, an economic seizure caused by 9/11, corporate governance scandals in 2002, a recession in 2002-2003, the economic uncertainty triggered by invading Iraq (this one was a policy choice), and eventually oil spiking above $100 per barrel.

I think it’s OK for a President to talk about the challenges he and the Nation face. It helps to set reasonable expectations. I think a President should propose solutions to those challenges and describe a brighter future that he hopes to deliver. I think it’s tacky and tiresome for a President to keep bashing his predecessor, especially more than a year after taking office. I acknowledge that my perspective on this point is biased by my professional past.

I also think this refrain weakens President Obama. He is portraying himself as a victim of forces that are beyond his control. A President should want people to focus on him and what he’s going to do, not on a comparison of him with someone else (anyone else). President Obama should want people talking about the Obama Agenda rather than about what happened ten years ago. Ten years ago.

I suspect that many Americans are tired of the blame game, especially more than one year into a new Administration. Whatever your view of President Bush, his policies, and their results, America needs to look forward. We have big challenges ahead of us, and we need to propose, debate, vote on, and then implement solutions.

More than the blame game, this is what concerns me about the President’s economic agenda. The President’s own projections show that his policies will not fix the future problems he identifies. Based entirely on numbers from the President’s just released budget, America will see the following results if all of his policies are implemented as proposed and work as projected:

an average unemployment rate this year of 10.0 percent;
an average unemployment rate in 2012 of 8.2 percent;
a budget deficit this year of 8.3% of GDP;
a budget deficit that at no point in the next decade dips below 3.6% of GDP;
debt/GDP increasing from 64% now to 77% in ten years;
the size of government, measured by both spending and taxes, climbing to historically high shares of GDP;
three problems identified by the President (I do not necessarily agree that each of these is a problem):
continuing the expensive Medicare drug program without paying for it;
continuing the efforts in Iraq and expanding them in Afghanistan without paying for it;
continuing much of the Bush tax relief without paying for it; and
not measurably slowing the long-term growth of the major entitlement programs.
These are the results if the President’s policy program is successfully implemented.

I agree with the President that he inherited a tough situation, although I disagree with his explanation of the causes. Our fiscal car is driving toward a cliff. To avoid the cliff, the President might want to turn the wheel left, and I might want to turn right. At the same time, President Obama has the wheel. Complaining about the previous driver won’t prevent us from driving off the cliff. I hope the President will soon stop focusing on the last decade, and instead propose solutions for the next one



On Monday (Written in Feb.)when releasing his budget the President said:

The fact is, 10 years ago, we had a budget surplus of more than $200 billion, with projected surpluses stretching out toward the horizon. Yet over the course of the past 10 years, the previous administration and previous Congresses created an expensive new drug program, passed massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and funded two wars without paying for any of it -– all of which was compounded by recession and by rising health care costs. As a result, when I first walked through the door, the deficit stood at $1.3 trillion, with projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade.

This is a common refrain from the President and his team.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Argument: The previous administration and previous Congresses created an expensive new drug program … without paying for any of it.

Response 1: Yes, we did. At the time, Congressional Democrats tried and failed to create an even more expensive new drug program without paying for it. (Mr. Obama was not in the Senate at the time.)
Response 2: This Medicare drug program is ongoing. If the President thinks it is too expensive, then he should propose to make it less expensive. If instead he thinks it should be paid for, then he should propose other spending cuts or tax increases to offset the future costs. Pending health care legislation would instead expand this expensive benefit and pay for the expansion, but would do nothing about paying for the ongoing base costs to which the President is objecting. The past six years of deficit spending from this benefit is beyond President Obama’s control. The future spending is not. He could do this through reconciliation with 51 votes in the Senate.
Argument: The previous Administration and Congresses funded two wars without paying for it.

Response 1: The Obama Administration is continuing these wars without paying for them, and expanding forces in Afghanistan without paying for that.
Response 2: Two of those years were with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. There were legislative attempts to end the Iraq efforts, but none to end the Afghanistan efforts. I don’t remember anyone in the Democratic majority Congress (including then-Senator Obama) making a serious run at cutting other spending or raising other taxes to offset the war costs. Last year Rep. Obey proposed a war tax and was quickly silenced by his colleagues.

Argument: The previous Administration cut taxes for the wealthy without paying for it.

Response 1: Setting aside the mischaracterization “for the wealthy,” President Obama proposes to extend a significant portion of that tax relief “without paying for it.”
Response 2: If all the Bush tax cuts are left in place bracket creep will soon cause total federal taxes to once again climb above their historic average of just over 18% of GDP. Repealing these tax cuts would mean the government would be taking far more from the private sector in taxes than it has in the past. I believe taxes are not too low.
Response 3: Our medium-term and long-term deficit problems are driven by the growth of entitlement spending: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Raising taxes will not slow this spending, it will just buy us a few years of delay and slow economic growth.

Continued:


http://keithhennessey.com/2010/02/04/need-future-focus/

He got the Nobel Peace Prize!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA Bye the bye, HA stands for Horses Patute. That is about the best I can think of him.

Oh, I forgot to say something nice about Obama. He helped start the Tea Party.

jebartle-- You're right. I misread about Obama being ranked #15 three times. It was FDR. being ranked # 1. Unbelievable, also.

FDR should not have been in the top 30. He was terrible!!!

He has a nice large set of ears. I wish he's use them to listen to the people.

Originally Posted by jebartle

Cashman.....What would YOU do in the same circumstance following the Bush administration, near depression and health care OUT THE ROOF!....Put yourself in Obama's shoes....You are President now, let's hear how you would recover from this mess.....Lord help us all!....All the finger-pointing in the world will not turn this around!

Obama is going the way of Socialist Europe. He and you do not get it that socialism will not work. Europe is moving back toward Capitalism now that socialism has destroyed their economy their institutions and their private enterprise spirit.

I am beginning to feel sorry for you progressive Obama ideologs because your desire to win the argument with we free enterprisers has clouded your thinking.

The sad thing is that you are aiding Obama in his desire to destroy our great country and you fail to accept that.

Now if you come back with your mantra that it is the fault of Bush you are admitting that I am correct here.

Cashman: Let's see, and you would do WHAT if you were President....Oh yea, that's right, more finger-pointing....Give it up!.....

Originally Posted by jebartle

Cashman: Let's see, and you would do WHAT if you were President....Oh yea, that's right, more finger-pointing....Give it up!.....

I cannot make it clearer for you to understand.

I am a free enterpriser so I would cut taxes and spending and do all the things required to improve the atmosphere for the private sector to do its thing.

Liberals do not understand this so you do have a serious problem.

I'm not a liberal, I'm an American, I want to clean up this mess in the worst way, BUT it starts with EVERYONE, not Republicans, not Democrats, BUT EVERYONE being civil and working together....AMEN

It is very frustrating to hear people say they want to work together when all we had was strife for the whole 8 years of the Bush administration. The man in charge now does not know how to anything but point fingers. That has been getting very, very old. The leadership shown during the oil spill has been dismal, to say the least.