Obama - a failed presidency?

[mjs]

Maxx, do you have amnesia? Weren't you alive during the Clinton years? Your boy Billy gets majority credit for NAFTA. I've even heard his own wife distance herself from his past viewpoints of it. Do I really have to quote excerpts of the speeches associated with the passage of the legislation? How can I choose amongst the thousands?

To reinstate the tax cuts for the wealthy, wiil add trillions to the deficit. They are not funded, and never were. Wake Up.

I thought the repubs were against adding to the deficit. Keep listening to Fux Noise.

I equated the Bush tax cuts to refusing to work anymore overtime because you finally had a month where you broke a life-long trend of spending more than you made. BFD, now pay down your credit cards you degenerate. We're beyond needing to aim for a balanced budget; we need to aim for a massive surplus.

Become a part of the tea party movement. A choice other than tax and spend or cut and spend.

[Detroit Stylin]

Maxx, do you have amnesia? Weren't you alive during the Clinton years? Your boy Billy gets majority credit for NAFTA. I've even heard his own wife distance herself from his past viewpoints of it. Do I really have to quote excerpts of the speeches associated with the passage of the legislation? How can I choose amongst the thousands?






I equated the Bush tax cuts to refusing to work anymore overtime because you finally had a month where you broke a life-long trend of spending more than you made. BFD, now pay down your credit cards you degenerate. We're beyond needing to aim for a balanced budget; we need to aim for a massive surplus.

Become a part of the tea party movement. A choice other than tax and spend or cut and spend.

You mean the party of Beck and Palin?

[oladub]

maxx, I cut to the bottom line. We have a balance of trade which removes $50-60B a month from our economy; every month, year after year. We are ruled by crooks. The answer is to only vote for honest people instead of the lessor of two evils. Anyone who voted for politicians who supported Bush's Wall Street bailout should have known what the results would be. One of these crooks was John McCain who also co-authored the McCain-Feingold campaign reform and incumbancy protection act. That, right there, should say something about the bill's ability to clean up politics. It really wasn't worth it's attacks upon free speech. All of these people we complain about for selling US workers out, were elected under McCain-Feingold.

Anyone who want's honest government should vote for honest people instead of politicians who wrap themselves in political sheep clothing. We probably need a third party as we already have two big centrist government parties. It's no wonder some of the highest income counties in the US encircle Washington DC while Detroit, Gary, Flint, and thousands of other manufacturing cities die even under President HopeyChange.

[jiminnm]

To reinstate the tax cuts for the wealthy, wiil add trillions to the deficit.

Please explain how this is true.

According to the IRS, a total of $1.03 trillion in personal income tax was collected from everyone in 2008. About 52% of that came from returns with more than $200K in AGI.

[maxx]

RE: McCain Feingold
Why blame lawmakers who are trying to rein in money to political campaigns if others find a way around the law? Shall we just do away with all laws that are not perfect?

[maxx]

Maxx, do you have amnesia? Weren't you alive during the Clinton years? Your boy Billy gets majority credit for NAFTA. I've even heard his own wife distance herself from his past viewpoints of it. Do I really have to quote excerpts of the speeches associated with the passage of the legislation? How can I choose amongst the thousands?

Most bills that are passed are huge things. Everyone has to put in his/her two cents or they won't vote for it. I showed you positive and negative outcomes from the NAFTA bill. Now I don't know who put in the part that gave the corporations so much power over natural resources, do you? NAFTA didn't have a thing to do with China. Incidentally, McCain voted for CAFTA in 2005, so I guess he liked NAFTA's outcomes overall. Hillary voted against CAFTA.

[fryar]

If you're a business owner investing in your business/hiring employees, aren't you making less than $200k to begin with?

I'm not saying "stick it to the rich," but I think a tax break for employer shares of Social Security and Medicare will go a lot further than reducing the tax on atypically large amounts of disposable income.

[Jimaz]

Economic discontent and polling disconnect

Although 71 percent of Americans still blame former Pres. Bush for the current economic mess, the latest Gallup/USA poll shows voters preferring GOP candidates. Mother Jones' David Corn discusses.

So 71% believe the Republicans were the ones who drove the country into the ditch yet they supposedly want more of the same. Oh, really? What's wrong with that picture?

[firstandten]

To reinstate the tax cuts for the wealthy, wiil add trillions to the deficit.

According to Fareed Zakaria of the Washington Post this is why the above is true

"The "Bush tax cuts," passed in 2001 and 2003, remain the single largest cause of America's structural deficit -- that is, the deficit not caused by the collapse in tax revenue when the economy goes into recession. The Bush administration inherited budget surpluses from the Clinton administration. What turned these into deficits, even before the recession? There were three fundamental new costs: the tax cuts, the Medicare prescription-drug bill and post-9/11 security spending [[including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Of these the tax cuts were by far the largest, adding up to $2.3 trillion over 10 years. According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly half the cost of all legislation enacted from 2001 to 2007 can be attributed to the tax cuts."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...080103287.html

[Papasito]

They should take away the tax cuts, and even increase the tax rates across the board, because it just feels good for some people to see others paying more of the money they earn to the Government, even knowing all along that the increases will in no way be able to bridge the gap between taxes collected and Government spending. The intention is purely punitive, because it is wrong for some to earn more than others. And for doing so, they should be hit and hit hard.

Damn anyone that attempts to achieve wealth and prosperity in America.
Damn them to hell.

[ghettopalmetto]

They should take away the tax cuts, and even increase the tax rates across the board, because it just feels good for some people to see others paying more of the money they earn to the Government, even knowing all along that the increases will in no way be able to bridge the gap between taxes collected and Government spending. The intention is purely punitive, because it is wrong for some to earn more than others. And for doing so, they should be hit and hit hard.

Damn anyone that attempts to achieve wealth and prosperity in America.
Damn them to hell.

How is an unwillingness to pay taxes equated to "attempting to achieve wealth and prosperity"? If you paid zero taxes, Papasito, would you be wealthy and prosperous?

I tend to think if the anti-tax zealots actually WORKED as hard as they WHINED, they might start to see some of that wealth. Mathematically, you can't grow incomes by cutting taxes. After all, if someone makes $30,000, and you give him a tax cut, he still makes $30,000. The only difference is that since you've reduced government spending, you've weakened the social safety net for the time when his boss decides he's expendable.

[Crumbled_pavement]

Quick question, if anyone knows: Why are the Bush tax cuts expiring to begin with? I'm Bush either assumed and hope for a Republican predecessor and that this person would have renewed the tax cuts. Nevertheless, wouldn't it have been easier to have just made the tax cuts permanent to begin with? I'm just curious of how the whole thing came about.

[Papasito]

gp,
you totally miss the point.
no use in me explaining it to you, because you just won't get it.

[Mikeg]

Why are the Bush tax cuts expiring to begin with?

Because there were not enough votes in the Senate to override a threatened Democrat filibuster as a stand-alone bill, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts were introduced and passed as a budget "reconciliation" bill, which only needs 50 votes to pass. The Senate's "Byrd Rule" prohibits the use of "reconciliation" for provisions that would increase the deficit beyond 10 years after the reconciliation measure, therefore the upcoming "sunset".

[Big Dog]

The threatened filibuster by dems was, because the tax cuts weren't paid for and would increase the deficit. Making a 10 years limit, was the only way to have it pass.

[Mikeg]

A view from the other side of the pond:

Even America's liberal elites concede that Obama's Presidency is crumbling

".....historic change is coming to America, though not quite the version promised by Barack Obama."

[Crumbled_pavement]

Because there were not enough votes in the Senate to override a threatened Democrat filibuster as a stand-alone bill, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts were introduced and passed as a budget "reconciliation" bill, which only needs 50 votes to pass. The Senate's "Byrd Rule" prohibits the use of "reconciliation" for provisions that would increase the deficit beyond 10 years after the reconciliation measure, therefore the upcoming "sunset".

The threatened filibuster by dems was, because the tax cuts weren't paid for and would increase the deficit. Making a 10 years limit, was the only way to have it pass.

Thanks Mikeg and Big Dog. I was wondering, now it all makes sense.

[Papasito]

The tax cuts were a good effort to try to bring back the economy from the dot-com bubble burst. However, with 9/11, the housing collapse and engaging in optional wars we had to borrow money to fight, the economy was doomed, and the tax cuts were not going to make a difference.

[firstandten]

A view from the other side of the pond:

Even America's liberal elites concede that Obama's Presidency is crumbling

".....historic change is coming to America, though not quite the version promised by Barack Obama."

If I see it in the Guardian then I'll start to get worried

[1KielsonDrive]

I'll repeat what I've been saying for a while now: Obama is an arrogant intellectual. He seems to think he can persuade people to his views based upon his intellect and by his occasional speeches. His recent speech about being 'dogged' or being treated like a dog or some such thing, was a lame attempt to talk like a 'brother'. He has no fire, no fight. As bad as Bush Junior was, and he was the worst president in our history, he was much more of a fighter than Obama. Obama is a mistake of epic proportions.

[Detroit Stylin]

How long has he been in office again?

[Papasito]

Heading for 2 years?
A lot of folks are hoping Hillary gives it another shot in '12.
If not her, then hopefully someone more moderate, fiscally responsible, and capable of doing what's best for America, and not what's best for thier personal agenda.
Obama is in it for Obama, not the will of the people, not for 'reaching across the isle', not for 'transparancy' or 'change', and not for the bettering of his political party as a whole. Definitely not for fixing the economy [[1 point what trillion later and people are still losing jobs by the hundreds of thousands...?) People have caught on.

[Detroit Stylin]

Heading for 2 years?
A lot of folks are hoping Hillary gives it another shot in '12.
If not her, then hopefully someone more moderate, fiscally responsible, and capable of doing what's best for America, and not what's best for thier personal agenda.
Obama is in it for Obama, not the will of the people, not for 'reaching across the isle', not for 'transparancy' or 'change', and not for the bettering of his political party as a whole. Definitely not for fixing the economy [[1 point what trillion later and people are still losing jobs by the hundreds of thousands...?) People have caught on.

Exsactly and you all want him in a little more than 18 months to Unfuck what Bush has fucked up over sas period of 8 years? GTFOH with that. Now you are calling his presidency a failed one and its not even half way through his term? If anything I will say that Obama's presidency has been the most judged, scrutinized, picked apart, and criticized since the man took office. Hell I even remember people making remarks about how he took the friggin OATH geesh!

[Crumbled_pavement]

Exsactly and you all want him in a little more than 18 months to Unfuck what Bush has fucked up over sas period of 8 years? GTFOH with that. Now you are calling his presidency a failed one and its not even half way through his term? If anything I will say that Obama's presidency has been the most judged, scrutinized, picked apart, and criticized since the man took office. Hell I even remember people making remarks about how he took the friggin OATH geesh!

True. Like I always say, there's plenty of legitimate criticism against Obama. He's made plenty of mistakes and boneheaded moves. However, if this guy sneezes there'll be a front page headline complaining about it. I don't know if it's the economy or what, but America is fired up about this president big time!

[rb336]

I don't know if it's the economy or what, but America is fired up about this president big time!

It started with the Palinites' racist bullshit, followed by the rest of the tea party and republican Big Lie machine