Feb 11 2009
The Obama Implosion – Updated
Final Update: Jennifer Rubin has probably summarized the result of the stimulus bill the best today:
The president seems likely to win the battle but lose the argument — and the war. The battle is the stimulus bill which passed the Senate on Tuesday and will clear the conference committee this week. But the argument concerns the best way to revive the economy. The war is the effort to redraw the political map, creating a permanent Democratic majority.
…
The most definitive evidence that Americans are resistant to the president’s effort to pump up spending and expand the size of government comes from Obama’s own campaign book.  …  To the contrary, he pledged to go line by line through the federal budget. (We’re pretty certain he meant to subtract, not add, as he went along.) If anything, the “mandate†was to restrict the size of government.
…
If the Democrats were going to occupy the center of the political spectrum and pull in all but the extreme rightwing of the GOP, you would expect not only a far different bill (one which mirrors the public’s aversion to the spend-a-thon) but rhetoric which more closely tracked the New Politics and optimistic bipartisanship which were the cornerstone of Obama’s campaign.
Many have noted that the Congressional Ballot poll question has been turning away from the democrats at an amazing pace, following a rising disgust in the polls for the Spendulus bill. It’s going to get worse. The Spendulus bill can’t do anything until mid to next year. We will see a frightening ballooning of the national debt and still bad, or worse, economy. The dems will have failed like the failed to surrender Iraq in 2006.
And failure reaps election losses – end update
Just a short post tonight to focus on the imbecilic path the new administration has taken in its first month.
First there were the exceptions to the rule of cleaning up politics with the appointments of numerous positions who can’t even get their taxes right, and only decided to fess up and pay what they owed once they realized their tax evading ways were becoming public.
Next was the incredibly ridiculous stimulus package, which Obama handed over to the far left, out-of-their-minds Democrat House. They put everything into the package but near term stimulus, and they wanted to burden our children and their children with decades of debt just to sneak through the most massive wasteful spending binge DC has ever undertaken. The House only cared that the money would go to liberal policies, damn the return on investment and the fact you had to toe the liberal line to get a piece of the pie.
This included some incredibly damning steps towards government rationed health care in America:
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide†your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.†According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.â€
In other words, the government will determine what health care they can afford to allow you to have, not your doctor. And there will be a price to pay for anyone who doesn’t follow the dictates of the Central Committee:
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough†decisions elected politicians won’t make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs.Â
The best medicine will now only be available to the elites, the rest of us will have to do with the old methods. No word yet on whether they plan to bring back bleedings to try and cure cancer.
America is not stupid and is not ignorant of the socialist power grab. If anything there are in a state of shock, ready to transition into open rage at any moment. The problem is well known to the Democrats, who are trying to shove the bill through before the sh*t hits the fan. The public is turning on them:
Overall, 53 percent of Americans agree that the Obama stimulus bill will actually hinder economic recovery; while only 31 percent disagree (16 percent are not sure). Fifty-six percent of Independent voters also agree, while only 27 percent disagree (17 percent are not sure). A staggering 88 percent of Republicans agree and just 6 percent disagree (another 6 percent are not sure).
…
Fifty-seven percent of Independent voters agree that Obama’s stimulus package spends too much and does little to stimulate the economy; while just 31 percent of Independents disagree (12 percent are not sure). Eighty-nine percent of Republicans also agree, while only 5 percent disagree (6 percent are not sure).
Obama and Democrats won the last election because independents aligned with them and in opposition to the GOP. But the GOP has been moderating since 2006 with the nomination of McCain and Palin, and the new RNC chairman Steele. The hard edges are being shaved from the right, while the left is running madly out of control.
Then we get the disastrous announcement from Treasury Secretary Giethner which was so bad it tanked the stock markets. The more he talked the worse it got. He demonstrated the Obama Administration has no clue what it is doing, and refuses to show us how bad they are screwing up.
“… I want to be candid: this comprehensive strategy will cost money, involve risk, and take time.
“We will have to adapt it as conditions change. We will have to try things we’ve never tried before. We will make mistakes. We will go through periods in which things get worse and progress is uneven or interrupted.
Right now the situation is not as bad as the Carter recession – by a long shot. But one way to make it worse it wildly throw money out the window and fail to make a difference. Some banks will go under. Many people will be hurt financially (just about everyone already has been hurt).
Stop screaming “Fire!” and maybe we would not have this damn stampede where people are being seriously hurt! We need calm to return, but Monday the President came out and played Chicken Little.Â
My proposal to stimulate the economy is to shutter DC for 3 months. No more talk of solutions. Every time they open their mouths the economy heads south. No more legislation. Work on the 2010 budget and stay away from the microphones. Run the government, stay out of the markets.
Let things settle down. Otherwise the more they try and fix things the worse it is getting and we all might be dead broke by summer.
Update: A sad must read.
Major Update: Obama finally admits we will not see any recovery for at least a year. I and others have been saying this for weeks. Most of the spending will not begin until mid to late next year. So what’s the hurry again? Â Seems his magic wand is broken.
“Right now the situation is not as bad as the Carter recession – by a long shot. ”
AJ, I think you’re right, but now it’s worse because we have someone in charge who is commercially naive and who has never had to actually run anything. At least Carter had been a governor and peanut farmer. He actually had to make ends meet.
Obama is a complete rookie surrounded by people who are taking advantage of him and fleecing the public in the process. The banks are insolvent. All the bailout efforts should be pointed towards saving the depositors, not the sovereign wealth and hedge funds who are counter-parties to the toxic derivatives held by the banks. If the banks fail, these high-risk gambler funds would be wiped out — the banks are being propped up only for their benefit. The size of this problem exceeds the balance sheet of the world and will have to end in bankruptcy, the only question is how much taxpayer money is wasted before they realize the patient is terminal.
Voters Ready to Punish Democrats
February 10, 2009
Most voters are not happy with the Democrats’ trillion-dollar porkfest, and, with the Dems now unambiguously in control in Washington, they know whom to blame. That’s the only inference one can draw from Rasmussen’s latest generic Congressional preference poll. The parties are now in a virtual dead heat, with 40% preferring a generic Democratic candidate and 39% choosing the generic Republican.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/02/022800.php
This is why I like the Blue Dog Dems:
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Freshman Blue Dog offers a new START
posted at 10:18 am on February 10, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID) decided to reverse engineer the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Porkulus Bill to see if he could find anything worth rescuing. In doing so, Minnick devised a stimulus plan that limits itself to real stimulus, rather than bloating itself into an omnibus pork package. It costs only $170 billion, and self-terminates when the economy recovers.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/02/10/freshman-blue-dog-offers-a-new-start/
Allow me a brief intro. Long time lurker here, and first comment. I was also one of the early Obama supporters who was “awestruck” when he came on the national stage in 2004. I came to my senses a year later.
I think AJ is right with this post. This may be the start of the Obama implosion. Already, I see so many instances of the reason why I stopped drinking the Obama kool-aid- he isn’t the person he claims to be while in public. Look at all the pledges of a transparent administration, no lobbyists, etc? Three weeks in, and he’s already gone against his lofty idealistic promises. Eventually enough people will realize this. I just hope voters remember this monster of a spending spree in November 2010.
It’s great, however, to finally see the GOP be the voice of reason against wasteful spending. It’s too bad, though, that it took a jolting loss for it to happen. As long as they keep shedding off the extreme right, the middle will come back in protest of such wasteful “stimulus” bills.
Quote of the day…
My proposal to stimulate the economy is to shutter DC for 3 months. No more talk of solutions. Every time they open their mouths the economy heads south. No more legislation. Work on the 2010 budget and stay away from……
More people watched Bill Clinton’s 1993 news conference on the economy than Obama’s 2009 news conference on the economy
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5196IX20090210
Odd that. Wuz up?
Rasmussen had some very interesting recent polls on the GOP:
Majority See Reagan As Republicans’ Way Back To Power
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics2/majority_see_reagan_as_republicans_way_back_to_power
and,
Republicans Like GOP’s Conservative Direction, Democrats Don’t
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/republicans_like_gop_s_conservative_direction_democrats_don_t
excerpt:
Coming off a shellacking at the polls in November, the plurality of GOP voters (43%) say their party has been too moderate over the past eight years, and 55% think it should become more like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the future, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 24% think failed presidential candidate John McCain is the best future model for the party, and 10% are undecided.
Only 17% of Republican voters say their party has been too conservative, and 30% say its actions and positions have been about right, with nine percent (9%) not sure.
Unaffiliated voters are much more closely divided. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say the party has been too conservative over the past eight years, while 34% think it’s been too moderate. For 14%, the party’s been about right, and 13% are undecided.
CNBC had on one fellow who said that “these guys don’t know markets“.
He went on to explain that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hadn’t disclosed a “plan” today, but rather gave a “broad” outline of a plan which, as far as the markets were concerned, was worse than nothing.
Geithner should have waited until the plan was complete rather than creating new uncertainty in the market with “vapor”.
You can argue about the “stimulus” all you want, it is this “plan” (or lack thereof) that is the heart of the federal government’s contribution to stemming the recession. This started with “toxic assets” and it won’t end until these “toxic assets” are purged.
Uh oh!
ATI News reported:
Public Rejects Obama Stimulus Bill
90 Percent of Republicans and 60 Percent of Independents Oppose Obama Economic Recovery Plan
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ — Amidst all the rhetoric surrounding President Barack Obama’s first signature piece of legislation, a massive $800 billion economic “stimulus” bill, one thing is clear: a majority of Americans reject the President’s handiwork. A just-released ATI-News/Zogby International poll shows that clear majorities of Republicans and Independents are against it.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/public-rejects-obamas-pork-bloated.html
Schumer said we don’t care about earmarks. I am faxing a note at 202-228-3027 to let him no different.
I think the government does need to take some responsible action to help ease the financial crisis, but Obama’s plan is just ridiculous.
Marksbbr,
Welcome! Yes, it is too bad the GOP needed a political death scare to do what should have been natural.
Now if they can only stop wailing at moderates – who elect governing coalitions – and trying to overrule them things would be working
I think you misunderestimate “Obama”
You are surprised? Why?
All of this was completely predictable.
If you read the opinion at http://investigatingobama.blogspot.com
you may understand that Obama’s handlers’ have decided to go “all inâ€
in the first year of his “presidencyâ€.
Why?
They reason that is all the time he has got left.
The goal is the destruction of the USA.
Let’s look at the bailout plans. Why are they even necessary?
Who started the attack on Sept 15 that withdrew 550 Billion dollars
from US banks in one single hour?! The Treasury stopped the attack but it collapsed Behrings, and the panic was started. So the attack
started the October surprise and got Obama elected, and our
clueless McCain continued to fight “nicelyâ€. What a jerk.
Now we have the media, that vast army of Myrmidons, saying:
Save us, save us. From your own attack?
We are not morons.
We surround you.
The financial bail outs are all designed to fail, but by borrowing maybe
as much as ten trillion dollars, money we cannot repay, the US dollar
will collapse. All your savings will become worthless and now you
know what those detention camps are being readied for.
I would suggest that under no circumstances should anyone give
up their guns. You may need them.
I do hope that the three treasonous “republican†senators can get
their act together on HR45, the bill that will strip you of your guns.
We need a hero. Please try to save your country.
Our country is on the edge of it’s own death. No joke.
Do not talk about Obama as though he is trying and nice but stupid.
He is not stupid and he is evil.
Moderation in the face of an evil monster is just stupid.
The lack of clear information on what is contained in this bill is already doing harm to the economy. For example, the provision that offers deductibility of interest on new vehicle purchases makes the decision to buy a vehicle a dangerous one in the next few days.
All manufacturers have some form of 0% financing out there, but if you itemize your taxes, you’d be a fool to take advantage of it. It is my understanding that only the first year’s interest would be deductible, but this can still exceed the benefit of 0% for the life of the loan, because refusing the 0% gets the buyer a sizable rebate. Taxes, (which taxes?) will also be deductible. Buyers are going to need accountants to help them traverse this morass of regulation.
We no longer have a private sector, it is a true public-private framework now, and all economic decisions in the future involve calculations as to what big brother’s impact will be. This has been somewhat true for some time now, but this “stimulus” takes it up another level.
So this is what happens when you worry more about electing the first black (half) president regardless of the fact that he is the most unqualified candidate in our nation’s history, never held a job and turns to incompetents like Pelosi, Reid, Geithner ad infinitum to do his homework—-better off if the dog ate it than pass this whorefest of legislation. Hope y’all feel good in the morning having chocolate cake for breakfest—never mind the cavities, free health care will cover that, or the government will decide that all you really need is 2 good teeth.
Watch the scoreboard that is the market, it processes all available information and seasoned with investor risk profiles makes efficient decisions. The market long ago started factoring in the impact these idiots would have on the economy and future growth.
Fear not though fellow Americans—everything that this batch of miscreants does, can and will be undone—but not without spending a few dollars and perhaps a few bullets.
Hussein and the democrats won the last election because for the past decade, republicans have acted like Hussein and the democrats. Reagan conservatives win elections.
I think Obama’s legacy is going to end up being the “growing sense of government betrayal of the people’s trust.”
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67% Say They Could Do A Better Job On The Economy Than Congress
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
When it comes to the nation’s economic issues, 67% of U.S. voters have more confidence in their own judgment than they do in the average member of Congress.
Forty-four percent (44%) voters also think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress, but 37% disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics2/67_say_they_could_do_a_better_job_on_the_economy_than_congress
This isn’t all Obama’s fault, of course. It’s been bubbling for a decade. But, it will blow up during Obama’s term….and, as he compounds the problem…..it will be assigned to his legacy.
[…] Originally posted here: The Strata-Sphere » The Obama Implosion […]
That Jennifer Rubin article was a good read. It is also possible that Obama/Dems don’t mind pushing things to the brink so early in his Admin……thinking that Americans will forget all about it in two year/four years.