Hot Dogs & Beans - the new reality?

[Mikeg]

Earlier this week during the televised "town hall" meeting with the President, one of his exhausted supporters asked the President a question.

Attachment 7484

Velma Hart: "....hot dogs and beans .....is this my new reality?"

Attachment 7485

President Obama: ".....so, yeah, the ahh, yep, so, so, the, the life you describe, one of responsibility, looking after your family, contributing back to your community, that is what we want to reward........Let me give you a couple of examples......"

He offered up the following examples:

- nationalization of college loans
- more regulations on credit card issuers and loan originators
- an unfunded government mandate that requires health insurance companies to cover children with pre-existing conditions

and he concluded by saying there are "a whole host of things that we have put in place to make your life better."

Unfortunately, he didn't offer any specifics that directly addressed the feelings of economic insecurity that she expressed.

Maybe that's because everything else he has tried hasn't worked and his economic strategy cupboard is bare what with the recent resignations of his top economic advisers, Peter Orszag, Christina Romer and Larry Summers. [Austan "Obama's NAFTA campaign promise is empty rhetoric" Goolsbee - really!?!, really!?!]

The recession may be technically over, but last week's new unemployment claims are up by 12,000 to 465,000 newly jobless workers.

What is our new economic reality under this President?

[gdogslim]

The press really turned on her after she asked Obama a tough question. Was this the only first or second open question conference he has had in like over a year? When he goes off teleprompter he seems to always stutters and stamper and talk incoherantly.

[ghettopalmetto]

Try as you may to blame [[rightfully or not) President Obama for failing to fix problems that existed when he took office...

Which is worse? Failing to fix problems created by someone else? Or actively causing those problems?

Your GOP candidates for office are campaigning for election, promoting THE SAME EXACT POLICIES THAT GOT US INTO THIS CLUSTERFUCK: Cut Taxes and Deregulate.

Wake the fuck up and become part of the solution.

[rb336]

Try as you may to blame [[rightfully or not) President Obama for failing to fix problems that existed when he took office...

Which is worse? Failing to fix problems created by someone else? Or actively causing those problems?

Your GOP candidates for office are campaigning for election, promoting THE SAME EXACT POLICIES THAT GOT US INTO THIS CLUSTERFUCK: Cut Taxes and Deregulate.

Wake the fuck up and become part of the solution.

dogmatic adherence to their beliefs renders facts moot. They CAN'T wake up

[MCP-001]

This thread has got me in the mood for Lafayette Coneys.

Back in a few...

[maxx]

The press really turned on her after she asked Obama a tough question. Was this the only first or second open question conference he has had in like over a year? When he goes off teleprompter he seems to always stutters and stamper and talk incoherantly.

Obama's has had more press conferences than W had in his two terms. And W always talked to his choir.
This all sounds like a lot of transference since the average person couldn't get within a couple blocks of W. Remember the free speech zones? Straight out of 1984.

And since the OP brought up the issue of diet, the average American eats far more animal protein than his/her body needs. We feed grains to beef cattle that were better used to feed people.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/nu...bels-9/protein
"Adult men need about 56 grams[of protein] a day."

That comes to less than two ounces a day.
http://www.metric-conversions.org/cg...5&from=3&to=15

[Zacha341]

The foundation of the middle-class in eroding. Bad, short-sighted policy started with Bush et al, continuing with Obama, no less problematic and explicit just because "our side" is doing it. The policies are having an impact, and the political elite [[dem and repub) are out of touch with much of America as shown in the presidents response.

Indeed her 'questions' are compelling whatever side of the partisan fence you are on... and increasingly so more dems are starting to 'question'...

Videos from the town hall meeting in which the questioner asked specific questions:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...nding_you.html

Excerpt from questioner: "I'm one of your middle class Americans. And quite frankly, I'm exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for," a woman told President Obama at a town hall.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/vid...ted_woman.html

Earlier this week during the televised "town hall" meeting with the President, one of his exhausted supporters asked the President a question.

Attachment 7484

Velma Hart: "....hot dogs and beans .....is this my new reality?"

Attachment 7485

President Obama: ".....so, yeah, the ahh, yep, so, so, the, the life you describe, one of responsibility, looking after your family, contributing back to your community, that is what we want to reward........Let me give you a couple of examples......"

He offered up the following examples:

- nationalization of college loans
- more regulations on credit card issuers and loan originators
- an unfunded government mandate that requires health insurance companies to cover children with pre-existing conditions

and he concluded by saying there are "a whole host of things that we have put in place to make your life better."

Unfortunately, he didn't offer any specifics that directly addressed the feelings of economic insecurity that she expressed.

Maybe that's because everything else he has tried hasn't worked and his economic strategy cupboard is bare what with the recent resignations of his top economic advisers, Peter Orszag, Christina Romer and Larry Summers. [Austan "Obama's NAFTA campaign promise is empty rhetoric" Goolsbee - really!?!, really!?!]

The recession may be technically over, but last week's new unemployment claims are up by 12,000 to 465,000 newly jobless workers.

What is our new economic reality under this President?

[Zacha341]

LOL! You'd stutter too if you had to please with subterfuge; bidding to the god of political correction, and campaign prowess with the "Look over here! Not there" standard rhetorical jargon, "no answer" style most politicians do!!

Add to this the fact that he is clearly in over-his-head... The woman was gracious, clear and concise and unless you conspiratorially think she was a repub 'plant', she was reasonable. Duh?

He is not an extemporaneous speaker for certain, got that... and with so many sides, and patrons to please; eggs not break, it's got to be hard.

Meanwhile back at the ranch... we're a digging a fiscal hole deeper and deeper. And NO! McCain/ Palin would have not solved all the problems either. We get that! We had these poor options put before us -- some chose Obama, some McCain and some chose neither.

The press really turned on her after she asked Obama a tough question. Was this the only first or second open question conference he has had in like over a year? When he goes off teleprompter he seems to always stutters and stamper and talk incoherantly.

[GOAT]

Lots of talk but little to show for it on the economy and jobs front.

Yes he has signed in a lot of new bills but there is a shit load of new regulations with a lot of gov't work. This usually means more gobbling up of tax dollars that are scarce enough. Now he wants to put more $$ into the economy to "kick-start it" yet most economic studies show that stimulus spending does little to bring an economy out of recession.

Now here is a question that should be asked. How many recessions do we have to go through that are considered "jobless" recoveries" before there aren't any more jobs left?

[ghettopalmetto]

Now he wants to put more $$ into the economy to "kick-start it" yet most economic studies show that stimulus spending does little to bring an economy out of recession.

Does this mean you have read all academic treatises on Keynesian economics?

Citation, please.

[maxx]

Here's an interesting little slide show on past recessions. Page 8 shows that unemployment lags behind the recovery.
http://www.slideshare.net/gaetanlion...ies-since-wwii

This article says that there has been a structural change in our economy, so recovery will take longer. And this was written in 2003.
http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/c...9-8/ci9-8.html
"...We find evidence of structural change in two features of the 2001 recession: the predominance of permanent job losses over temporary layoffs and the relocation of jobs from one industry to another. The data suggest that most of the jobs added during the recovery have been new positions in different firms and industries, not rehires. In our view, this shift to new jobs largely explains why the payroll numbers have been so slow to rise: Creating jobs takes longer than recalling workers to their old positions and is riskier in the current uncertain environment... The period following the 1990-91 recession was dubbed the “jobless recovery” because the economy added so few jobs during the first year and a half after the expansion began... The divergent paths of output and employment in 1991-92 and 2002-03 suggest the emergence of a new kind of recovery, one driven mostly by productivity increases rather than payroll gains. The fact that no influx of new workers occurred in the two most recent recoveries means that output grew because workers were producing more...

Workplace constraints and incentives that in the past encouraged temporary layoffs have been eased. For example, fewer employers are now bound by union contracts, which often call for temporary layoffs in the case of slack work. In 1956, 34 percent of private nonagricultural workers were covered by union contracts; in 2002, that figure had slipped to 9.4 percent.11 In addition, rule changes by the federal government during the 1980s prompted states’ unemployment insurance programs to shift more of the costs of frequent layoffs onto the responsible employers—an action that could discourage employers from using temporary layoffs....Instead of furloughing permanent workers, firms increasingly hire temporary help when they are busiest and then cut back when demand falls. "

[GOAT]

GP, I'm not going to search and give you citations all day. There are numerous studies that show the money doesn't help much other than infrastructure projects that needed repair anyway.

Just as this trillion $$ stimulus only have rise to a few months of rising stocks, it is now back to reality.

[ghettopalmetto]

GP, I'm not going to search and give you citations all day. There are numerous studies that show the money doesn't help much other than infrastructure projects that needed repair anyway.

In other words, you're lazy and you're making shit up.

[GOAT]

Sure if that is what makes you feel better. Google it your fucking self. I know what I have read.

[ghettopalmetto]

Sure if that is what makes you feel better. Google it your fucking self. I know what I have read.

If you know what you read, and you intend to impart your great wisdom to us peons, why can't you share your sources with us, so that we may enlighten ourselves and aspire to the pinnacle of your knowledge?

Or you can blow it out your ass. Either way, it's your choice.

Just because you say something doesn't mean you're correct, and it doesn't mean we have to believe you [[let alone treat you like the scholar you think you are).

[Gistok]

When he goes off teleprompter he seems to always stutters and stamper and talk incoherantly.

Sounds like someone was asleep during presidential news and speech broadcasts from 2001-2009....

[maxx]

Sounds like someone was asleep during presidential news and speech broadcasts from 2001-2009....

Now, now. Eventually they learned that boy how to read.

[Patrick]

What is our new economic reality under this President?

You have been living in MI since 2001? Nothing new to have shitty economy....

[GOAT]

You got me figured out GP. Kudos to you. The scholar has spoken!

[mjs]

Try as you may to blame [[rightfully or not) President Obama for failing to fix problems that existed when he took office...

Which is worse? Failing to fix problems created by someone else? Or actively causing those problems?

Your GOP candidates for office are campaigning for election, promoting THE SAME EXACT POLICIES THAT GOT US INTO THIS CLUSTERFUCK: Cut Taxes and Deregulate.

Wake the fuck up and become part of the solution.

How many times do I have to post the links and results of the 1999 Gramm-Leech-Bliley Act that repealed the 1933 Glass-Stegall regulation because of its nonenforcement under the 1993-1999 Clinton administration? It was bipartisan!!!

Glass-Stegall should have been reinstated and Gramm-Leech-Bliley repealed when they handed the welfare money to the banks against overwhelming public opposition. Instead the pork laden bailout was drafted, discussed, and voted on in under a week while that joke called Fin Reg took over two years. The bank bailout vote was very partisaned with virtually no republican support in congress. Fact it contained zero regulation is not the fault of those that voted against it.

Democrats controlled the congress before the crash. At what point will Democrats acknowledge that Dodd and Frank had more to do with getting bills out of the banking and housing commitees than Bush did? At what point will Dems be held accountable for what the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulation does not do? Follow the money. Dodd, Frank, and Obama are banking favorites.

Only McCain, a republican mind you, has tried to get Glass-Stegall reinstated. Glass-Stegall reinstatement means all past decisions on it become stare decisis once again. FinReg's partial Volker rule means decades of banks dragging government to court as they test every possible loophole. Dodd, at least the lawyers thank you. You'll become a very rich man as you scam all your consulting and lobbying fees now that you've been chased out of congress.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ext-recession/

[Zacha341]

Yep, "kick the can down the road" approach indeed. Get your popcorn and watch the movie! LOL! Too bad the films cast and extra are the US citizens, rank and file or indigent with an ever eroding middle class pulling up the rear - literally. As the 'directors' [[the anointed and appointed ones) and producers continue to change and edit the script, but not much [[reps or dems).

When you keep doing something and getting the same results....?

Well that should say something. In the meantime the shrinking value of the dollar is marked and felt by those of us using said currency. I think if my current jobs [[I work three just to make it) don't continue I'll apply to work for the government. They should be hiring ----! Oh 'might-tee' government!

Lots of talk but little to show for it on the economy and jobs front.

Yes he has signed in a lot of new bills but there is a shit load of new regulations with a lot of gov't work. This usually means more gobbling up of tax dollars that are scarce enough. Now he wants to put more $$ into the economy to "kick-start it" yet most economic studies show that stimulus spending does little to bring an economy out of recession.

Now here is a question that should be asked. How many recessions do we have to go through that are considered "jobless" recoveries" before there aren't any more jobs left?

[johnsmith]

When he goes off teleprompter he seems to always stutters and stamper and talk incoherantly.

When Bush winged it and stumbled over his words at news conferences, he at least made it funny. O-bahhhh-ma just sits there with a big dumb grin on his face when he realizes the woman isn't throwing him a nerfball, as if to assure everyone, "I'm good and couldn't be happier about this woman telling me she's disappointed in me." [[1:16 mark in the vid)

BTW, Obama looks like he just smoked a FATTY.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnMMo8lVG5M

at 2:35 to 2:45 he talk about behavior that his administration wants to "reward"

As if the federal gov't job is to be "rewarding" people. Very telling as it shows blatantly, his arrogance and elitism, as if they're above us mere citizens. VERY TELLING. It shows that he truly believes in the nanny state.

He really tried to dodge that simple question with a drawn out I-forgot-what-the-original-question-was type of answer.

Short answer - "Yes. And my administration intends on helping you get some free mustard [[that you're going to pay for anyway)."

[maxx]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/op...28krugman.html
"... The Obama administration understands the dangers of premature fiscal austerity — but because Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress won’t authorize additional aid to state governments, that austerity is coming anyway, in the form of budget cuts at the state and local levels... So I don’t think this is really about Greece, or indeed about any realistic appreciation of the tradeoffs between deficits and jobs. It is, instead, the victory of an orthodoxy that has little to do with rational analysis, whose main tenet is that imposing suffering on other people is how you show leadership in tough times.
And who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again."

[Zacha341]

Well stated.... indeed the 'nanny' state is afoot, but never enough for those who want more and more and more.

When Bush winged it and stumbled over his words at news conferences, he at least made it funny. O-bahhhh-ma just sits there with a big dumb grin on his face when he realizes the woman isn't throwing him a nerfball, as if to assure everyone, "I'm good and couldn't be happier about this woman telling me she's disappointed in me." [[1:16 mark in the vid)

BTW, Obama looks like he just smoked a FATTY.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnMMo8lVG5M

at 2:35 to 2:45 he talk about behavior that his administration wants to "reward"

As if the federal gov't job is to be "rewarding" people. Very telling as it shows blatantly, his arrogance and elitism, as if they're above us mere citizens. VERY TELLING. It shows that he truly believes in the nanny state.

He really tried to dodge that simple question with a drawn out I-forgot-what-the-original-question-was type of answer.

Short answer - "Yes. And my administration intends on helping you get some free mustard [[that you're going to pay for anyway)."

[maxx]

Everyone is complaining about the unemployment rate of 9% after one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. Doesn't anyone remember a similar unemployment rate under Reagan? And that was before all the structural changes that have occurred to our economy like the outsourcing of jobs.