AP: Not The Obama They Knew?

The AP's Tom Raum offers a less than glowing analysis of Obama's policies, proposals and positions. And he often cites Democrats, not Republicans, as sources for voiced concerns.

Although the administration likes to say it "inherited" the recession and trillion-dollar deficits, the economic wreckage has worsened on Obama's still-young watch.

Every day, the economy is becoming more and more an Obama economy.

The president's suggestion that it was a good time for investors with "a long-term perspective" to buy stocks may have been intended to help lift battered markets. But a big sell-off followed.

Obama may have contributed to the national anxiety by first warning of "catastrophe" if his stimulus plan was not passed and in setting high expectations for Geithner. Instead, Geithner's public performance has been halting and he's been challenged by lawmakers of both parties.

Republicans and even some top Democrats, including Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, have questioned the wisdom of Obama's proposal to limit tax deductions for higher-income people on mortgage interest and charitable contributions.

Even White House claims that its policies will "create" or "save" 3.5 million jobs have been questioned by Democratic supporters.

"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong," the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Montana Democrat Max Baucus, told Geithner last week.

"If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs," Baucus said. "You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."

Republicans assert that Obama's proposals, including the "cap and trade" fees on polluters to combat global warming, would raise taxes during a recession that could touch everyone. "Herbert Hoover tried it, and we all know where that led," says House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio.

The administration argues its tax increases for the households earning over $250,000 a year and fees on carbon polluters contained in its budget won't kick in until 2011-2012, when it forecasts the economy will have fully recovered.

But even those assumptions are challenged as too rosy by many private forecasters and some Democratic lawmakers.

Comments

[13yankeebravo]

Excellent weasel tactics as Dilbert would say.

[anon]

That's interesting. I'm starting to lean away from meglamanic and toward incompetant. I'm starting to think that ALL Obama brings to the table is the Liberal 101 Playbook and if the stuff in his playbook doesn't work, he's got nothing else. I'm also getting the very bad feeling that Obama doesn't understand that you can't run the U.S. like the Harvard Review or a break out session, where you kick around some ideas, try a little of this and a little of that, and see what happens, if one thing doesn't work, try something else.

I'm a big fan of flexibility in terms of being willing to change something that is failing, but to start out with uncertainty, where everything you do is like a trial balloon, that's a killer all the way around, financially, diplomatically, politically.

[PA]

Ummm......best president ever!

[anon]

It's almost as if he had no management experience at all.....and virtually no political experience.....

LOL

[WBestPresidentEver]

Nothing will change.
The rich and connected will remain rich and connected.
Our government has been infiltrated by greed. Politicians are not beholden to the people, they worship money and power.
The USA will slowly sink into decline while the deluded elites spend trillions to implement their unrealistic and impractical socialist utopian fantasy projects and tax we the people to death to pay for it all.

And until we voters remind these people in the next election who they are working for, they will continue to rape this country. We truly need term limits, but I’m not holding my breath on that one. So we need to enforce our own term limits by voting out these longstanding incumbents. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd should be the first to go and if we could only get rid of dear "Nancy". What a delight that would be.

[Nelson Lee Walker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUfpaGzeP6k

To get a "Citizen Congress" we only need to NEVER REELECT anyone in Congress

tenurecorrupts.com