6 months of President Obama – what do we have to show?
On May 27th, President Obama stated that his $787 billion stimulus plan “saved or created” 150,000 jobs. On that same day, the expectations of a GM bankruptcy ensured that at least 20,000 jobs would be lost imminently. Which said nothing of the at least 50,000 jobs that were lost immediately due to the Chrylser bankruptcy. Since February over 1.6 million jobs have been conservatively lost, over $50 billion dollars of borrowed public money has been spent only to be lost in bankruptcy, and the economy has failed to improve.
In fact, the number of mortgages in bad standing (late at least 1 month) has grown to 12%, the highest level yet. At least 50% of all subprime mortgages are late at this moment. And unemployment rates are expected to continue to grow until mid-2010 – by the conservative estimates.
Which all stands in the face of the continued statements of the White House that 600,000 jobs will be “created or saved” this summer. Numbers that are impossible to verify, and like the 150,000 quote balk in the face of reality.
Still, there is the fact that a mere $44 billion of the $787 billion that the public is paying interest on has been spent so far. Which questions why so much money, that was promised as necessary and immediate, was allocated yet remains unused. It implies that the need was both not immediate and not as enormous as was done. Or in more crude terms, the White House and the Democrat-led Congress lied to the public.
But why was this done? What might be behind all this action for inaction? Well perhaps the answer can be found in the other things the Obama Administration has done, with the Democrat-led Congress acting as a cheerleading squad at every turn.
Congress passed a $410 billion spending bill to keep the Government running. That bill included specific legislation to guarantee the bonuses of AIG executives as they stood pre-bailout. The bonus packages could have been rewritten, but instead were actively protected by Senator Chris Dodd. Which gave Congress the following:
- A chance to blame Wall Street for excessive pay
- A chance to enact retro-active laws that effectively stole the legally paid executives. This violated contract law, and the Constitution.
- A chance to give the Secretary of the Treasury the power to absorb ANY company deemed significant to the economy. Significant was never defined.
- A chance for the Treasury to dictate the salary of private business employees, whether or not the company involved was deemed significant as abovementioned.
- A chance to create several “czar” positions. These positions enable the Government to be directly involved, and controlling, the actions of private businesses.
So far, President Obama has taken control of more businesses than he has ever worked at in his life. So far the Government has more control over industries than President Obama has degrees. And this is all while President Obama promises that he does not want Government in the private sector.
I take the protests of President Obama much like he kept his promise about removing 100% of all earmarks. He passed the $410 billion spending bill (which like the stimulus is not included in his $3.5 trillion budget) with 9,000 earmarks. He stated that he would work on the earmarks he promised to remove at some point in the future. Which is when I will believe that the actions of the Obama Administration and Congress are not well thought out plans that are socializing the country.
6 months into the Presidency and we have seen massive changes to the legal system, our foundation of law, the concept and ability to enact private business, and the size of an ever-growing Government. In the near future we will look forward to a Supreme Court Justice that epitomizes racial bias, spending millions to try detainees from Gitmo, hundreds of thousands on jailing said detainees, increased food costs as the ethanol glut increases almost exponentially, inflation, and a nuclear Iran. Oh, I left out the fact that North Korea is more than ready to resume a 50 year old war.
I just wonder how many people who heard President Obama promise change thought this would be the result? But just wait. There is still another 3 ½ years to go. Imagine what will change next.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:48 am
[...] Well I’m still looking for the jobs that the Obama Administration claimed to have “saved or created” since the Democrat-led Congress passed the $787 billion Economic Stimulus Plan early this year. You do recall that plan right? “On May 27th, President Obama stated that his $787 billion stimulus plan “saved or created” 15… [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
[...] Well I’m still looking for the jobs that the Obama Administration claimed to have “saved or created” since the Democrat-led Congress passed the $787 billion Economic Stimulus Plan early this year. You do recall that plan right? “On May 27th, President Obama stated that his $787 billion stimulus plan “saved or created” 15… [...]
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 pm
[...] Well I’m still looking for the jobs that the Obama Administration claimed to have “saved or created” since the Democrat-led Congress passed the $787 billion Economic Stimulus Plan early this year. You do recall that plan right? “On May 27th, President Obama stated that his $787 billion stimulus plan “saved or created” 15… [...]