June 14, 2009

"The reckless fiscal policies of the past have left us in a very deep hole."

"And digging our way out of it will take time, patience and some tough choices."

Obama has such a wry sense of humor!

IN THE COMMENTS: Knox says:
This is exactly the sort of statement I was referring to in another thread: immature and unPresidential. Grow up, you big pussy. You wanted the job, now quit whining and do it.

(Sorry for the language, I just watched Gran Torino last night.)
And Sy said:
I guess Obama have not heard the old adage ...if you are in a hole, stop digging.
Yeah. How do you dig your way out of a hole?

51 comments:

New York said...

Rahm Emanuel is currently trying to get this meme onto the cover of either Time or Newsweek for next week. So far he hasn't managed to get either Joe Klein or Peter Beinart, but he is working on it.

Whichever magazine doesn't run the "Bush did this" cover will do "Slave Labor in Safeway (enough is enough)".

Bissage said...

Digging your way out makes perfect sense when you’re aiming for China.

Anonymous said...

The reckless fiscal policies of the past...

Like, oh, Medicare, for example.

ddh said...

Hypocrisy recognizes virtue.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Obama is the most honest and verbally precise president we've ever had.

Maybe he is telling us exactly what he is doing - rather than climbing out of the hole, the normal way out, he believes that the only way out is to keep digging.

And following Bissage's point, at this direction and magnitude, it won't be long before Obama will have a large black hole to China into which we can pour the remaining parts of our future that we haven't already mortgaged to them.

bearbee said...

Laugh clown laugh

The world is looking to dump the dollar. American dollar losing face outside the US. Experts are noting that the Chinese, Russians and others are gradually moving into gold and away from US treasuries. The Middle East and far east are jettisoning the dollar in favor of gold. People wanting to accept euros rather than American dollars is being heard in Latin American countries.

Chinese had announced that they had accumulated 454 tons of gold, and concerned about their US treasury holdings are doing bilateral agreements with Argentina, Venezuela, Middle East anf African countries, Russia, by-passing the dollar. Germanys Merkle expressed strong concerns about Fed policy

Many experts see hyperinflation by year-end or early next year.

bearbee said...

BTW is anyone familiar with the Obama record in the Illinois Senate and US Senate on responsible fiscal spending, that is, outside the global tax he proposed on US taxpayers?

Automatic_Wing said...

No need to check the archives, we already know that Chicago machine politicians care deeply about fiscal responsibility.

Lord knows Illinois's finances are in tip-top shape.

rhhardin said...

Fowler cautions about dead metaphors that show stirrings indistinguishable from life in mixed company.

Anonymous said...

BTW is anyone familiar with the Obama record in the Illinois Senate and US Senate on responsible fiscal spending, that is, outside the global tax he proposed on US taxpayers?

"Present".

I'm Full of Soup said...

Obama can dither about this for as long as he wants.

In 2010, the voters will not care whether Bush started the deficit or whether Obama fiddled while it grew. [btw the Post article is lying when it says Obama inherited a $1.3 Trillion deficit].

The voters will be angry and guess who will pay the price.

Unknown said...

LOL, I guess Obama have not heard the old adage ...if you are in a hole, stop digging. I

n other words, STOP SPENDING like a drunkard sailor.

Stop advocating new $600+ billion programs.

Stop spending 8x times the previous record budget.

Unknown said...

Oops, I was mistaken. The new healthcare program cost more than $600+ billion. That's just the new tax increase to cover the program. Hatch stated it might end up costing $1,200,000,000.

You know how government programs go. It will probably ending up costing more than estimated by politicians.

Unknown said...

Hundreds of thousands of people would ndeed like him at this time to be tough and patient: repeal the spendulus!

I'm Full of Soup said...

Patca:

How Clintonesque it would be for Obama to repeal the Spendulus!

It won't happen though. I believe Obama's #1 personal interest is to right the wrongs [in his socialist mind] of social/ economic injustice. He even has little interest in foreign affairs [except for doing Apology Tours] so he has not changed Bush's foreign policies much.

LilyBart said...

Man, this guy will say anything he thinks sounds good at the time. And people just eat it up.

I notice that his personal popularity remains high while his actual ideas for "change" poll quite low.

What does this say about the voters? IMO, it says we are foolish people who value style over substance.

I despair for my country - but mostly for my liberty.

ark said...

http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/song-chart-memes-jobs-bush.jpg

Wince said...

Rahm Emanuel is currently trying to get this meme onto the cover of either Time or Newsweek for next week. So far he hasn't managed to get either Joe Klein or Peter Beinart, but he is working on it.


Though that would explain the NYT "analysis" contained in the Leonhardt article.

Does seem like an older Obama quote though.

bearbee said...

The good old days.

One of the greatest favors that can be bestowed upon the American people is economy in government.

Calvin Coolidge
1924 presidential address

knox said...

This is exactly the sort of statement I was referring to in another thread: immature and unPresidential. Grow up, you big pussy. You wanted the job, now quit whining and do it.

(Sorry for the language, I just watched Gran Torino last night.)

AlphaLiberal said...

President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. .

Source

And, really, deficits are by nowhere near our top economic concern. Unemployment is going through the roof as we've been losing over 1/2 million jobs per month since the Bush Presidency.

A new wave of mortgage readjustments (upward, that is) is about to crash on the beach, followed by more defaults.

We're in a hole allright. We won't get out by using the same policies that got us in.

Anonymous said...

We won't get out by using the same policies that got us in.

And, pay tell, AlphaLib, what policies should we use?

Your left hasn't a clue, does it.

Because to articulate the only policy that will work would be to approve of of business growth and entitlement rollbacks, and you just can't bring yourself to do that.

You think unemployment is killing us, but you aren't in favor of lowering capital gains, so that capital can go to new ventures that create new jobs.

Rather than taxing the Bill Gates and Paul Allens more, you should be trying to create more Bill Gates and Paul Allens, but that would be totally against your fascist communist tendencies.

Rather, if we follow Obama, what the left will give us is total employment with everyone having $7.50 an hour job that means nothing.

They are so focused on the disparity of income that they can't see that he poor in America live better than the poor of any society in history.

They'd rather have everyone be poor but equal.

bearbee said...

The National Debt Road Trip

Video 2:46 minutes

bearbee said...

"isn't He dreamy?"

Joe said...

I assume by "the past", he meant four months ago.

Mark O said...

Quayle is quite correct: Had Bush said we need a shovel to get out of a hole, it would have made every talk show. (Insert your own joke)

Maybe everyone needs to be shovel ready, even if the shovel is useless. I've started to take one to work. Who knows?

This much is certain, almost no one reports critically on Obama's supposed great oratory. It is assumed to be wonderful. His "tennis match" delivery is its own distraction.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Bearbee:

"Isn't he dreamy"?

Yes to some Americans, but his economic policies are a nightmare! Thanks for that link.

Caroline said...

Dig UP, stupid!

Unknown said...

Yes, AJ, it would be Clintoneque, and I guess I would settle for that.

"It's the economy, stupid."

Bruce Hayden said...

AL,

We know that your source is bogus (it is the New York Times, after all), when it blames part of the deficit on Bush's tax cuts. That is what is called "static analysis", and was discredited better than a decade ago. What it doesn't take into account is that cutting taxes has an incentive effect, and raising them, the opposite. So, raising taxes never raises nearly as much money as projected, nor does cutting them reduce them that much. The debate is not whether or not this works, but rather, whether cutting taxes brings in more taxes than it cut.

So, we have an economically illiterate President proposing massive tax increases during a recession. Yes, it is partially to pay for his massive new programs. But also just because it would be environmentally politically correct to do so (in the guise of the tax and bribe, aka cap and trade, proposal).

So, you have an Obama apologist making up reasons why the "stimulus" bill wasn't part of the problem, and not part of the solution, why the last budget was signed into law with 8,000 or so earmarks, why the deficit this year is going to be some 4 times that of last year, without taking into account the economic effects of socialized medicine and the tax and bribe environmental bill. And you apparently find him credible.

bearbee said...

Chinese premier endorses Adam Smith

What is BO reading?

bearbee said...

Just keeps getting better 'n better.....

Federal Reserve to Hire Ex-Enron Lobbyist in PR Move to Counter Doubts about Fed's Growing Power Over U.S. Financial System

How is the Fed responding to:

(1) a bill in Congress with 190 co-sponsors to audit the Fed

(2) a new law giving the GAO some power to examine the Fed's actions

and

(3) calls by many to abolish the Fed altogether?

paul a'barge said...

Nothing is too hypocritical, venal or dishonest enough for Barack Hussein Obama to choke on. The man is willing to say anything, no matter how much nonsense it peddles.

Barack Obama is the Grand Canyon of political treachery.

Pastafarian said...

"Digging our way out" of a very deep hole; that has to be the most perfect quote that I could imagine from Obama. It's enough to make me wonder if Rush Limbaugh was temporarily in control of the TOTUS.

But Obama is right: This is exactly what they've been doing. They've been digging their way out of a hole. Bush spent us into a recession, so let's fix things by...spending more than anyone imagined possible.

In this one little quote, we can see why IQ, academic credentials, and verbal eloquence should have absolutely no bearing on who the better candidate for POTUS is. Do you know who would have been better in this job than this Harvard-educated, articulate young genius?

Someone who knows how a fucking shovel works, that's who.

Someone with better ideas. Someone who knows that socialism has been discredited.

Boy, we really dodged a bullet, not electing that idiot Palin VP.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Does everyone here see the sheer lunacy in a fed agency (the Fed Reserve) hiring a lobbyist?

[yes, I know the Fed is an allegedly indep agency but come on- where does it end?]

EnigmatiCore said...

"President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. ."

AlphaLiberal,

Let's stipulate, for a second, that this is true.

If so, and if Bush's deficits were irresponsibly big, the concession that Obama's deficits are even bigger, even if just slightly, is not exonerating but damning.

And that is if it is true that they are just a sliver bigger. If he follows through on his proposals, then it won't just be a sliver.

You may want to think of a better argument.

Fen said...

We know that your source is bogus (it is the New York Times, after all)

Why would anyone use the NYTs as a source these days? Might as well quote from HuffPo. Even the National Enquirer has more credibility.

Fen said...

Next up: Pravda provides factual evidence that the workcamps are "voluntary".

[snicker]

bearbee said...

Obama 2 step -

Obama proposes making 'pay-as-you-go' the law

The so-called PAYGO proposal requires Congress to balance any increased spending by equal savings elsewhere, Obama said in announcing the measure that now goes to Congress.

Ha, ha, ha.

bearbee said...

Does everyone here see the sheer lunacy in a fed agency (the Fed Reserve) hiring a lobbyist?.

A former **giggle** ENRON lobbyist. Ha, ha, ha.

Anonymous said...

PAYGO as currently proposed is indeed doing it the ENRON way: taking the bad things off the books and calling the books balanced.

Didn't work in Houston. Won't work in DC.

Unknown said...

Canada gets it. They have cut government spending by 25% over the last five years. And yet Obama is emulating them before they figured out what they were doing wrong!

Canada versus US

Bruce Hayden said...

bearbee

Keep in mind that a lot of people worked for Enron, in one capacity or another. One prominent name, who flogged for Enron, after having been well paid, is (newly) Nobel Laurate Paul Krugman. The same Krugman who doesn't think that Obama has dug his hole fast enough or deep enough.

I'm Full of Soup said...

It's kinda funny to watch Chris Dodd today on Fox news and he says "healthcare spending increased by 42% in the last six years and that can't continue".

WTF, then why is it OK for most govt spending to increase at the rate ?

I blame Bill Clinton. He was the one who really mastered getting up there and lying all the time inn a confident voice and with a straight face. And I am not referring to the Lewinsky matter.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Go Magic! Beat Kobe's ass tonight!

Joe said...

My challenge to Obama; put your money where your mouth is and repeal the stimulus. Veto all bills with pork barrel spending. Don't even wait for Congress to act, just start cutting expenditures. Dare them to pass a bill forcing you to spend money!

Don't worry, it won't happen. Obama is first and foremost a political coward and not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.

Craig Howard said...

How do you dig your way out of a hole?

I don't know, but the Keynesians tell me that it's good for the economy if the government pays me for it.

Joe said...

How do you dig your way out of a hole?

You get out of hole and start shoveling dirt back in.

Anonymous said...

Unemployment is going through the roof as we've been losing over 1/2 million jobs per month since the Bush Presidency.

Most people would label that time frame "The Obama Presidency".

Just sayin'.

A new wave of mortgage readjustments (upward, that is) is about to crash on the beach, followed by more defaults.

We're in a hole allright. We won't get out by using the same policies that got us in.

Imagine how bad things might get if the whole "flooding the market with dollars" ends up leading to the inflation that basically everybody sees coming...

Unknown said...

I don't know what you're talking about AlphaLiberal. Obviously a capital gains tax cut will cure everything . . .

A.W. said...

yeah, by "the past" he means the first 100 days of his presidency.

i know, it would be funnier to me if i wasn't ready to weep.