(02-07-2011 10:51 PM)Redwingtom Wrote: I'm curious as to why you think Obama has not been an effective president.
Other than the unemployment rate being atrocious, he has passed a lot of his agenda in only two years. Stock market is up, corporate profits are at an all-time high, etc.
Just because you don't like what he has done does mean it has not had an effect.
I think he's been effective in getting things done. I just don't think the things he's gotten done are very good. I still think he is basically a socialist/communist. That's based on reading his books, looking at his voting record in Springfield and Washington, and looking at his life before the white house. Having to go away from those leanings is difficult for him.
Corporate profits are up, but those profits are being made overseas, away from the US tax man. Dow is up because QE/QE2 have pumped massive amounts of cash into market, and because earnings reflect those overseas profits.
We are on an unsustainable debt path. Were before Obama, thanks to Shrub, and Obama has made it worse.
Obamacare will cost us trillions. Don't tell me that the CBO did an independent study that concludes otherwise. That's not what they did, and that's not actually what their reports say, if you read them in their entirety. What CBO admits freely in their reports is that they were given assumptions by congress, that they believe those assumptions are unlikely to occur, and that the more likely outcome is likely to be billions worse than the numbers quoted by those who cite the study. My own calculations -- $2 trillion worse.
I don't think unemployment is coming down any time soon. We created 32,000 jobs last month. We need 150,000 a month to hold our own with population growth, upwards of 200,000 to bring unemployment down. We're not going to get those jobs until we make the US a good place to do business. Obama is at least starting to talk the talk on this, but he has yet to walk the walk.
He could still turn out acceptably, but he's going to have to make a 180 to get there. Clinton did, and I know Bill is now advising him. Maybe some good will run off.
At least he now has to deal with the republicans for real, instead of the crap that got falsely passed off as "bipartisanship" in the first two years. I could go for some real bipartisanship. Not that the republicans have any good ideas either, just hoping they'll each keep the other away from doing the really crazy things they want to do.
We're on the wrong path. We've pretty much been on the wrong track since at least the 1960s. So far, Obama has pushed us toward wronger.
