TAPPER: Well, what is the president doing? We know that he went to a -- -- he went to fundraisers last night. What's he doing today?
CARNEY: Jake, that is --
TAPPER: What is he doing --
CARNEY: The president -- as the president has worked --
TAPPER: We hear him hectoring Congress about all the stuff that needs to be done to help create jobs --
CARNEY: That's right. And Congress --
TAPPER: -- and then he flew off to Chicago. What is he doing today?
CARNEY: The president is having meetings with his senior staff. The president has called on Congress to move quickly on things that have bipartisan support and are in Congress's lap, the trade --
TAPPER: The same stuff he was doing a couple months ago, calling on Congress to pass things.
CARNEY: Congress has the power to pass legislation that the president can sign. The actions that it can take could create more jobs right now, if it passed the patent reform, if it passed the free trade agreements. And as you know, there are other issues that the president encourages and will push hard for the Congress to take up when it returns from its recess, including extension of the payroll tax cut, which would put -- which has this year put an additional $1,000 in the pockets of every American, or typical American family. And he believes we need to do that again next year, because that assists those families in having them -- you know, giving them the ability to make ends meet, and puts money back into the economy, which in turn sustains businesses and creates jobs. And he will continue to come up with and propose measures that we in Washington together can take to spur further economic growth and job creation.
TAPPER: Has he called Mitch McConnell? Has he called John Boehner? Has -- is he working on things that they can do? If every --
CARNEY: Jake, I don't -- I know you weren't here yesterday, but I know you were here for most of the days before that, when this president and those leaders and others worked seven days a week to avert a major economic crisis in this country that would have made –-
TAPPER: You’re the one always saying the president can walk and chew gum at the same time. I'm asking you --
CARNEY: Well, what are -- are you asking me what -- he is -- he is focused --
TAPPER: Other than calling on Congress to pass things you've been calling on Congress to pass for months, what is he doing to help the economy?
CARNEY: He is working very closely with his senior economic advisers to come up with new proposals to help advance growth and job creation. He is working with members of Congress to help advance growth and job creation. And he will continue to do that. There are things that Congress can do now to create jobs, and they should. There are things that Congress will be able to do when they return from recess to help create jobs and spur growth, and they should. And he looks forward to working with Congress to do that.
You've got to love it when the MSM wakes up to reality. Maybe someone will finally ask Obama what he meant by Change? At this point it has all been Change for the worse.
It may be early in the campaign season, but the Communist Party USA already has seen fit to endorse Barack Obama for the 2012 election.
ReplyDeleteWhile noting he is disappointed with "some aspects" of the Obama administration's domestic and foreign policy, Sam Webb, chairman of the Communist Party USA, threw his support behind Obama's re-election bid.
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
By Andrew Stiles, National Review
ReplyDeleteNo it has nothing to do with al-Qeada, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) told a group of liberal bloggers Thursday that she has super-secret plan to combat the GOP’s “hostage-taking” mentality and prevent a repeat of the debt limit debate, during which Republicans got basically everything they wanted by “acting like terrorists”:
Without disclosing details, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says she has a plan for dealing with the Republicans’ legislative hostage-taking strategy. In a meeting with a small group of reporters in her office Thursday morning, she said the dynamics of the debt limit fight — where Democrats were forced to accept deep cuts to government programs on the threat of default — will not happen again.
“Suffice to say that you won’t see a repetition of what happened last week, taking us to the last minute when they didn’t even have the votes — they didn’t even have the votes — and then saying to us ‘You will be responsible for a default,” Pelosi said in response to a question from TPM.
Pelosi was reluctant to spell out just how she would stave off this situation, however. “I would say that if I were to tell you…it would be defanged,” she said, after being pressed for details. “In terms of what we — how we would approach where they go from here. And that may be a House Democratic position…. Our members were very unhappy about that vote the other day. Very unhappy.”
“[W]e wouldn’t let our country default,” Pelosi said. “But I’ll say it this way to you. A default is a much more serious consequence than a shutdown of government for a few days.”
“Expect us to be more visible in terms of what we say here and how we mobilize out side to make sure the Republicans know the risk of taking us to the brink,” she added, when asked to provide more details. “It’s to make it a completely unacceptable place for the Republicans to go because it will have public consequence.”
By Jim Vandehei & Mike Allen, Politico
ReplyDeleteThe politics of the debt fight were a drag for President Barack Obama, yanking his popularity to new lows. Here’s an even bigger drag: Obama emerges from the months-long fracas weaker – and facing much deeper and more durable political obstacles – than his own advisers ever imagined.
The consensus has been that for all his problems, Obama is so skilled a politician – and the eventual GOP nominee so flawed or hapless — that he’d likely be re-elected.
Don’t buy into it.
This breezy certitude fails to reckon with how weak his fundamentals are a year out from the general election. Gallup pegs his approval rating at a discouraging 42 percent, with his standing among independents falling nine points in four weeks.
His economic stats are even worse. The nation has 2.5 million fewer jobs today than the day Obama took office, a fact you’re sure to hear the Republicans repeat. Consumer confidence is scraping levels not seen since March 2009.
Where’s the bright spot? Hard to see. Obama has few, if any, domestic achievements that enjoy broad public support. No one assumes employment, growth or housing prices to pick up much, if at all — something Obama is essentially powerless to change. And the political environment and electoral map are significantly tougher than in 2008, especially in true up-for-grabs states.
“The historical precedents of what happens to incumbent presidents in these economic circumstances are not positive or encouraging,” said Geoff Garin, a top Democratic pollster. “There has been a false sense of confidence among a lot of Democratic activists.”
By Wynton C. Hall, Human Events
ReplyDeleteIf President Obama needed any more indication of how much his public support has eroded, he need look no further than a recent memorandum of sorts published in the New York Times by former President Bill Clinton’s pollster, Stanley Greenberg. Listen to Greenberg, whose progressive polling firm partners with Clinton strategist James Carville, advise Obama and Democrats on what his latest round of polls and focus groups reveal are their only hope to survive politically, given the current reality:
-“Voters in the developed world are turning away from Democrats, Socialists, liberals and progressives.”
- “Voters feel ever more estranged from government—and they associate Democrats with government.”
-“If they are to win trust, and votes, Democrats must show they are as determined as the Tea Party movement to change the rules of the game."
-“This distrust of government and politicians is unfolding as a full-blown crisis of legitimacy [and] sidelines Democrats and liberalism."
-Greenberg says that his public opinion research now reveals that voters believe, “Government rushes to help the irresponsible and does little for the responsible."
-To win, Democrats must “advocate policies that would control the borders and address problems of undocumented workers,” and voters want to “see strong enforcement at the border and in the workplace, and the expulsion of troublesome undocumented immigrants."
-“Finally, progressives have to be serious about reducing the country’s long-term deficits” because “the deficit matters to people and has real meaning and consequences.”
Following the bipartisan debt agreement, President Obama and his fellow Democrats tried to pivot by promising to turn their attention to job-‐creation. In a Rose Garden press conference, the President vowed to “…continue…to fight for…new jobs, higher wages and faster economic growth.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi joined in, saying “Enough talks about the debt, we have to talk about jobs.” And Sen.Charles Schumer (NY) went a step further to claim that job-‐ creation is in fact Democrats’ “strong suit.”
ReplyDeleteBut as American Enterprise Institute’s Kevin Hassert points out, it certainly is not Mr. Obama’s “strong suit.” The graph belowcompares the first two and a half years in office of the five worst presidents on job--creation since 1890. President Obama is the second worst, coming in behind President Herbert Hoover whose first two and a half years in office were during the Great Depression. Not very impressive for somone who has been saying since 2009 that his administration’s “overriding focus” is to “make sure that people are getting back to work.”
If Nobama had spent as much time on OUR Economy as he has on his Campaign Funds I do believe Economy would be in better shape. Campaign Funds Important Citizens and Economy not so MUCH!
ReplyDeleteAusterity measures could kill economic growth.
ReplyDeleteLast week brought the disconcerting news that the economy grew no faster than the population during the first six months of the year, in part because of spending cuts by state and local governments. Now the federal government is cutting, too.
"Unemployment will be higher than it would have been otherwise. Growth will be lower than it would be otherwise. And inequality will be worse than it would be otherwise," Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of the bond investment firm PIMCO, said Sunday on ABC. "We have a very weak economy, so withdrawing more spending at this stage will make it even weaker."
This was sent to me yesterday by a friend. The origin is unknown. It explains our debt situation quite well. The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective: U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000 Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000 Newdebt:1,650,000,000,000 National debt: $14,271,000,000,000 Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)
ReplyDeleteIt helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones
family. Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700 Amount of money the Jones family spends: $38,200 Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500 Outstanding
current balance on the credit card: $142,710 Amount cut from the current budget: $385
So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. Cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending? Will this work? Hmmmmmmm!
Now...... y'all need to think positively about the economy! Obama will be dumping over a billion into it to get re-elected..... his PERSONAL stimulus!
ReplyDelete