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A Simple Question for Barack Obama

By Larry Johnson on March 1, 2009 at 1:56 PM in Current Affairs

Dear Barack,

While you deserve credit for running a tight, tough Presidential campaign that not only was well-funded but well organized, when it comes to economics you don’t know dick.

You correctly noted in your Saturday speech to the nation that you inherited a mess from the Bush Administration:

Mr Obama sought to lay much of the blame for the current recession on his predecessor George W. Bush “Having inherited a trillion-dollar deficit that will take a long time for us to close, we need to focus on what we need to move the economy forward, not on what’s nice to have,” he said.

You are correct, at least in part. Bush played a major role in the out of control Federal budget and deficit spending. But you helped vote for this shit. You, along with the Democrats, who controlled Congress for the last two years. So, the out of control spending and the Bush tax cuts were made possible by you. You and your buddies approved this madness.

And now, your prescription to out of control deficit spending is to double the Federal budget deficit–adding almost a trillion dollars while increasing taxes? And I thought George Bush was a moron.

The economists and policy wonks lining up behind your budget and insisting that more government deficit spending marks the road to recovery are nothing more than political whores. In the same way that the media enabled George W. Bush to launch an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq they are now playing cheerleaders to your nonsensical plan.

If more Federal government spending was the answer then in the wake of the Bush trillion dollar deficit spree we should be approaching zero unemployment and looking for new workers overseas. But, as we witness the unfolding global economic collapse one point is clear–spending money you do not have and cannot afford to payback is a recipe for fiscal disaster.

Barack, if ignorance is bliss you are a damn happy fellow.

  • blogforce one

    We are in REAL TROUBLE! This is the great depression II and the captain is asleep in the wheelhouse of the train. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel” he exclaims…. only he fails to notice the “light’ is the headlight of an incoming freight train with Chinese writing on it loaded with un-payable debt obligations and massive Inflation due to printing money we do not have with 20% unemployment to boot! What did he do?? handouts to constituents and called it a “stimulus” package this package is a time bomb that will destroy our great nation and everything she stands for in a few short years! Q. How is he going to handle the summer riots and looting for food?

    • Animal Control

      Soylent Green

      • Toni

        YEP

    • cynic

      The big problem with trains is that they don’t have steering wheels. All you can do is go forward, stop, or back up. If you want to change directions, you’ve got to change tracks.

    • kgirl

      Uhh this is not a case of the captain being a sleep it’s a case of either A. willful sabotage, B the captain doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing, or C. All of the above.

  • Animal Control

    The economists and policy wonks lining up behind your budget and insisting that more government deficit spending marks the road to recovery are nothing more than political whores. In the same way that the media enabled George W. Bush to launch an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq they are now playing cheerleaders to your nonsensical plan.

    Well, Obama did say he liked Regans’ deficit spending. Larry you make me hopefull that there are still some reasoned persons unafraid to speak truth to power.

  • John Smith

    Nothing really changes in D.C. When it comes down to it the same people are running the show as before. I just don’t see how things will get better when the people who caused the problem to begin with are still in charge of it all. This is the same reason GM will never make it until they fire the entire management team. Same goes for fixing the financial system. Although, I believe the problem is not the financial system but how will the economy pickup with out any new ideas or major industrial shift. If thinks stay the same there is no way we will see an economical up turn.

  • blogforce one

    There should be an immediate forced merger of the major banks into 5 to 7 super regional federal banks with public stock issued. Modeled after the Canadian system as Alexander Hamilton envisioned. a 3 year freeze of credit card and mortgage interest at 5%. Stimulus and tarp should be canceled forthwith and the money pumped straight into the economy through 0% interest to small businesses and TAXPAYERS in the amount of $5-$10 thousand dollar amounts with the proviso that these funds be injected into the economy within 45 days. this will save the patient and eliminate the possibility of some filthy grubby hacks hands touching the dough! It’s our money and we have to pay the debt, give it to us now!

  • wodiej

    LJ, this is one of the best threads you’ve written.

    the Dem’s helped create the deficit. And if this is the cause of unemployment, why are they spending more?? I want to see an Obot troll argue with this. Bet we won’t see any within a hundred miles of this thread.

  • CentralMass

    I was watching a Boston station this am and saw plan where “qualified buyers” will be given between $15,000 and $25,000 fro a down payment to purchase foreclosed properties in areas of the city liek Dorchester.

    Must be nice..

    • snosandy

      While I had to buy my house in a bidding war and paid a couple hundred grand more than its worth. AND the seller wouldn’t fix anything the inspector found wrong with the place.

  • JRD

    Larry, I`m so proud of you. You`ve got me so pumped up.

    I left Wall Street because all those wonks at Goldman Sachs are all progressive slime who are in bed with Obama. Rubin over at Citibank ran it into the ground. Where is the outrage about Rubin`s $120 million bonus every year for 5 years.

    Goldman hired all those MIT grads that didn`t know dick about economics. These A-holes were responsible for the credit default swaps. We all told them they were crazy.

    This is planned socialism. It`s all for show. Obama`s a drama queen. Obama is a loser who has Narcissistic Personality Disorder and he doesn`t care who he throws under the bus.

    Let him have it, Larry.

  • I’m a Linda too

    SPOT On!

  • Katmoon

    Not to mention the hypocrisy; if it isn’t good for one party it certainly doesn’t work when the other party does the same thing. Repeating the same act over and over again, expecting different results=Insanity.

  • Miss H

    Mr. B. H. Obama was trained as a community organizer and socialist. He doesn’t care if the stock market crashes and never recovers; just as he didn’t really care about the people in the projects in his district in Chicago. As long as he can be the snake oil salesman and keep doleing out the public funds to his voter base, he keeps getting re-elected by those dependent on the government trough; he gets to live in the mansion and fly on his fast airplanes and you get to beg for a handout.

    • NoBamaNoWay

      yep; the whole criminal gang running this country is really only out for their own self-enrichment. that’s why my new cause is to shrink the fed government across the board. we need to get the power (and our money) closer to home, where citizens can exercise more oversight.

  • cathnealon

    American people need to stop being brainwashed by this constant droning noise of “brilliant”, he’s “brilliant.” As a great writer who knew a thing or two about the impending overthrow of the czar by Lenin and his radical Marxists said, “It is not the brains that matter most but that which guides them-the character, the heart.”
    Also, Emanuel was on Face the Nation this morning playing the same card over and over, “we inherited this deficit.” He wouldn’t stop saying this even after Schieffer was frustrated asking him about the Dems in the last 8 years. No, these guys know exactly what they’re doing. They’ve got the reins now and they are out to destroy the Constitution and capitalism just like BO’s many interviews and memoirs stated. Just like others he has said exactly what he thinks of the Constitution and our democracy. Reared in communism, atheism and nihilism he will put the final nail in the coffin of the U.S.
    “In the end the people will lay their freedom at their feet and say to these leaders, “Make us your slaves but feed us.”(Dostoevsky)

    • AF catfish

      American people need to stop being brainwashed by this constant droning noise of “brilliant”, he’s “brilliant.” As a great writer who knew a thing or two about the impending overthrow of the czar by Lenin and his radical Marxists said, “It is not the brains that matter most but that which guides them-the character, the heart.”

      Amen! Amen amen amen!

    • JozefAL

      As a great writer who knew a thing or two about the impending overthrow of the czar by Lenin and his radical Marxists said, “It is not the brains that matter most but that which guides them-the character, the heart.”

      Well, if that writer did know “a thing or two about the impending overthrow of the czar”, perhaps he learned of it from a crystal ball or a tarot deck. Dostoyevsky died in 1881, a full 36 years before the October Revolution. Hell, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (better known as Lenin) was still 2 months from turning 11 when Dostoyevsky died.
      Incidentally, the other quote you mention comes from “The Parable of the Grand Inquisitor” from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and was an accusation by the Inquisitor against a returned Christ. When read within the proper context (something that so many people choose NOT to do), the quote is even more chilling since a religious figure is telling Christ that ultimately a person who is starving is already a slave and feels he has nothing to lose. Basically, what good is being free to a man who has nothing to eat?

      • andrew191

        jozefAL, you’re a sick little twit. Your postings show nothing more than a complete contempt for the finest country ever concieved and faught for by mankind. This post reveals your communist mindset that blinds you to the time proven merits of free enterprise and individual self determination.

        It is a foundation of the American experience, and the cause for the creation of this country, that freedom is held as the paramount ideal! I, and the founders of this country, share the belief that it is better to starve and die, than it is to be fattened and bribed by our masters. Being hungry can be described as being a slave, but only to temporary circumstances that can be changed, as long as you are free to change them. Becoming completely dependent on a government to provide for your needs, is true enslavement. Demanding free medical care enslaves those that provide it. Demanding free houses enslaves those that build them. I’ld rather starve to death than live in the type of country you want!

        I have been hungry, and yes, I have been homeless, yet it is only through the freedom I cherish that I now have the pride and sense of accomplishment that changed my situation on my terms. I’ve never once turned to the government for help, so I’ve not been robbed of one of the most fundamental and supreme American experiences, that of doing it my way.

        • Sarah

          Andrew191–
          You keep me in awe with your insightful, articulate posts. Keep ‘em coming.

  • Peter Francisco Rev War Hero

    THE CONSERVATIVE WAY FORWARD IS BACK TO OLD TRADITIONS
    Stop the Outrageous Growth of Gov’t in DC: Act Responsibly, Act in your Family, Act Locally, Act Conservatively…..BUT ACT.
    By Peter Francisco, Forgotten Revolutionary War Super Hero

    I, ALSO get very upset at Rush, Hannity, Savage, Beck, et al, their BIGGEST FAULT is not facilitating the ORGANIZATION of us like minded Conservatives to take on these Erosionists. They need to Lead and Spearhead the Militant Activitism of Protest and Organize Events that will Promote our point of View with a Loud Organized Voice that Nobody Can EVER Ignore again. The Silent Majority need to have a Loud & Proud Majority well Organized and well funded all working in the same direction of going back to Conservative & Traditional Small Gov’t with Personal, Family and Local Responsibility with minor Gov’t interference. Conservative websites and bloggs have the same problem, lack of ORGANIZED one voice efforts. Too many little voices. We need to Combine into a Conservative Conglomerate Voice of Action.

    We don’t need all these vast amounts of web sites and blogs some of them very nice and elaborate with so much information, information overload, that is hard to keep up with. We need a very simple direction and basic site with a massive e-mail list with calls to action with helpful information to help Conservatives on a way Forward for them and Their Families and Business. We NEED LEADERSHIP. Guidance and most Important Massive Action. If we had 100,000 People with “pitchforks” Surround the People’s White House with a Clear Voice “Mr. “obama”, or whatever your name is, in the name of We The People and Our Constitution, you are hereby given one week to Show Uncontested Verifiable Proof to our Commission of Constitutional Scholars and Documents Experts, that you are Qualified to live in the People’s White House or we’ll be back next week to Throw You Out. We are putting Congress and The Supreme Court on Notice, Next Month we’ll be back for you for allowing it all.”

    Believe me, we wouldn’t need any Court Cases we would be Heard Around the World.

    Conservative Radio Celebrities, Journalists, Bloggers, Etc. need to take a more Personal Hands on Role to Organize a Movement. Michael Savage likes to say all the time: What can I do? I am just one guy with a radio show. Mr. Savage you have more power than ACORN. You have More Power than ACORN, ACLU, Sharpton, Jackson, Farrakhan, Rev Wright, Moore, Gore, Soros, Cindy Sheehan, Code Pink, FemiNazis, GLADD, Etc. Combined. You have US the Silenced Majority.

    Your power is waiting for you to Build a Hoover Damn to Organize it and put it to Good Use. Your power is waiting in Lake Silenced Majority. Mr. Savage Build the Damn DAM that will tear down this “obama” “dark” wall of transparency and his Obanomics of Gush Up Poverty with Gov’t Growth & Erosionism of our American Way of Life, Family, Culture, Traditions, Celebrations, etc.

    Mr. Savage call a Summit of your conservative colleagues and organize a Conservative Consortium. The Conservatives need Leadership to STOP the Erosion that is plaguing our country. Conservative Talking Heads’ words are nice but organized actions is what we need. We as a majority of “cowards”can’t sit quietly by unorganized while the well organized, well indoctrinated, well funded, technology savvy, Media Backed minority Constantly Ridicule, Litigate, Attack & Erode Our Long Standing Way of Life into oblivion. We are at a Cross Roads with a very short window of opportunity to turn the tide . The tide is building against us, but if we don’t take a stand now we will have lost the opportunity and lost the battle and the Moral and Cultural War FORVER to the Erosionists that grow their ranks with every school Indoctrination Graduation, every Proganda Program from Hollywood, Every Liberal Twisted TV Broadcast, etc.

    All these Talking Heads need to go back and Learn from the father of the Talking Heads Jerry Williams from Boston he had Politicians Scared and Empowered the people to keep Gov’t at Bay. Since he has been gone in Massachusetts we lots so many freedoms and have become the Nanniest of the Nanny states. The media/press is part of the Founding Fathers plan for checks and balances BUT the wolves are in co hoots with the coyotes to come after the sheeple.

    Growing Gov’t is KILLING US at every turn with a Growing Class of Dependency for Votes, More Handouts, and More Personal & Family Failure on the backs of fewer and less willing workers & investors.

    Our job now as Traditionalists & Conservatives is to be militant, take action and take a hit, sacrifice and Contribute in Legal Ways to make sure there is Total Collapse of this FAILOUTS Erosionist Gov’t Policies. I wrote before on how this can happen. Analyze your situations and everyone do your part within the confines of the law. We can quickly cripple Obanomics into a Failure by our combined short sacrifices or loose our American Way of Life FOREVER and have to suffer a long hardship greater than the Great Depression. “obama’s” Obanomic policies of Failouts, handouts, greater dependency, bigger gov’t, erosion of the family, etc will dry up investment, eliminate the taxpayer (worker and rich alike) and bring us The GREAT O-PRESSION.

    BUT MOST IMPORTANT IS WHAT EACH ONE OF US CAN DO NOW?

    First don’t buy into these Gov’t Idiotically Stupendous Solutions. They Never Worked and Never Will. It will just spread and stretch the misery. If you don’t believe me just look at any Major City in USA most all of them are run by some form of Gov’t like what we have in DC now and have been run that way for decades. Please tell me one of them that is a success. By success I mean qualify of life is up, Families strengthened, education improved, crime reduced, taxes & fees were lowered, business boomed, Private employment grew, unemployment lowered, drugs eradicated, corruption and influence corrected, more moral, etc. This is all the proof we need that Erosionist (Liberal, Progressive, Socialist, Rino, etc) Policies Failed it never worked in any city or state and it will Never Work in DC.

    Here is what you can consider doing to do your part without waiting for anyone else to step up and lead or an organization to get going. Please pass it on:

    1: Analyze all your debt and consider to stop paying it so you too can get a Handout. Just look at all your bills if you don’t pay them it will be a huge amount of cash you keep in your pocket. Save the money that you won’t pay and try to put most of it aside to use as Cash as needed.

    2- If you have credit cards consider to keep one or two in good standing. Choose the ones that have treated you well as a customer I personally would advise against: Chase, Advanta, Citi, etc. or any that took a Bailout. Any of the ones that have lowered limits making customer look Maxed Out which reduced their FICCO Scores which in turn started a domino effect by other Creditors with higher APR’s and more Lowered limits creating an unwarranted downward FICO spiral for the customer. Use the others to buy everything that you need, even get cash advances (to build up saved cash) or use their promotional checks to pay utilities or to build more saved cash. When you have these cards maxed, give yourself a Bailout, stop paying them and dump them. When they start calling you tell them you have no money and can’t pay because of the financial crisis. From what I hear they are very understanding BUT they will keep calling you with the same dumb questions, as if things have gotten better. They will offer you all kinds of plans to help after previously ripping you off and destroying your credit. If you can’t handle these calls consider changing your telephone number. You may want to get a cell tel. and call them up tell them you will no longer have a tel. because you haven’t paid the bill. When they call, tell them sorry wrong number, etc. There are Cell Companies now like Boost Mobile or PCS Metro that have unlimited plans for starting at $45/month.
    The intent is to Build Up Cash, Eliminate Debt, Cut Down Costs, Sacrifice and Save, Get Handouts, Loophole or Eliminate Taxable Income to help quickly Crash Obanomics.
    Afterward as our country rebounds and rebuilds be ready for Opportunities that will help your family and our economy back to the Old Fashioned Traditional way it used to be.

    3- Consider moving in with someone else for a yr or two to share expenses and stop paying your mortgage, rent, utility bills, etc. This will further CRASH the economic and housing market and save you/family and the other person/family money. Remember not long ago most houses had 3-4 generations living together.

    4- Consider every legal avenue not to pay taxes, don’t invest, barter, quit your job, etc. Close out your bank accounts and keep cash either in a fireproof safe or in a safe deposit box.

    5- Find ways to save money travel less, grow your own garden, cook at home especially soups are cheap and easy to make and healthy, etc. Save water, electricity, heat, etc.

    6- If you don’t own a house a house start planning to eventually buy a cheap house for cash if possible. Maybe to start do it with a family member or friends. Prices are way down and will come down even more. Soon you may be able to buy a house for the cost of a down payment a couple of yrs ago.

    7- If you own a house and you are upside down (under water, negative or no equity or value) or even if you are not look around, you may be able to find a house better than yours for half the price. You may want to buy the other house as your new home and say that you are selling your home. After you buy and move to the new half priced house and you can’t sell the old one just walk away. Congratulations in a few months you reduced your mortgage in half and still have your own home. You may have some liability for the other mortgage but you will be in a much better situation than if you had to pay that HUGE mortgage or were foreclosed on and with no place to live, at the same time you just freed up another house that will be bought up by someone else at a more affordable price. This is a correction in a market that was artificially inflated by dumb Erosionist policies to put everyone in a home no matter how bad their credit or income was. This Ponzi Scheme benefited the banks with fees, Erosionist Liberals with more dependency and votes until the House of Cards came tumbling down. Believe me many Rinos fell for this PONZI SCHEME ALSO. Now they are at a newer and bigger Ponzi Scheme: Big Gov’t for all at the cost of the few. The only problem is those few didn’t get rich by being stupid and they won’t be stupid now. Obanomics will mean Equal Poverty for All.

    8- If you have money in the markets, mutual funds, 401k type accounts, banks, etc. analyze carefully and consider withdrawing and liquidating to Cash or Gold. Soon most of these accounts & investments may evaporate or be taken over by the gov’t where you may loose all or a portion off what is yours. Remember Cash is King. You are doing this mainly to protect what is rightfully yours. It will also at the same time accelerate the financial crisis to quickly bottom out and rebound sooner. When it rebounds you will have cash and be a king ready to invest in good opportunities and make money. After every misery there is opportunity for those that wisely set themselves up for it. Be one of them.

    Please analyze and proceed with caution &common sense. First and foremost look out for you and your family. Don’t fall for the Gov’t Failouts PONZI SCHEME. In the end as it has been told in History Cash is King. Keep your Cash and find ways to have more and more Cash because the Opprotunities will be Great just like they were in the Great Depression. Some of the biggest owners of real estate today were the ones (and families) that had cash during the Great Depression and bought properties for dirt cheap.

    Stop the Outrageous Growth of Gov’t in DC: Act Responsibly, Act in your Family, Act Locally, Act Conservatively…..BUT ACT.

    By Peter Francisco, Forgotten Revolutionary War Super Hero lets learn from him Never Give Up!
    090301 12:29 VR

  • TeakwoodKite

    Example; the Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate bridge is crumbling and the rebuilding of it has been on the “drawing board” for decades. Just recently it appears the work may get started.

    Mr. Johnson, when Cheney said after the mid-term elections, that “deficits don’t matter”, who knew a Democratic would say the deficit MUST be bigger!

    Here is the issue in a nutshell; BO will do anything to get re-elected.

    When will the buck stop at the desk of the POTUS in stead of the cash register at Walmart?

  • Mercedes

    I have had the very unsettling feeling since 2007, when this last Presidential campaign began, that things are not at all what they seem to be. The Democrats never used their Congressional power against George W Bush. They did indeed facilitate his and his fellow Republicans’ insanity, both with the budget and with the Neocon’s imperialism. And the Democratic leadership were as intent as any Republican in barring the door to the Presidency to Hillary. At the same time, the Republicans didn’t support their own candidate, John McCain, and allowed the press to make a mockery of Sarah Palin. These were about the only people I know of who were talking about fiscal restraint from the beginning. Furthermore, Bush and his secretary of the Treasury assured Obama’s election by bringing down the global financial system by refusing to bail out Lehman Brothers.

    Twenty-five years ago, the religious right accused George Bush 41 of being a New World Order heathen. But somehow the Bushes convinced everybody that George W was born again and was going to save us all. I think the conservative base had it right the first time. If people were foolish enough then to buy all that bs about George W a la Karl Rove and now all the absolute, utter, messianic nonsense about the Chicago Fraud, then we don’t have anybody to blame but ourselves…except maybe the major, corporate media. What fools we are.

  • Linda C.

    Folks you aren’t offering anything but yelling “socialism”.

    The greedy bastards on Wall Street are putting the nail into the US. Now the question is whether Obama will swing the final hammer.

    Doing nothing will cause the budget deficit to go up with more entitlement programs for the unemployed. Contracting government expenses during a business contraction is not the answer. We are in a hell of a mess with little wiggle room. Once the budget deficits balloons even more it will suck the money out of the system. Somehow Obama thinks they can put the brakes on and the train won’t derail.

    Putting trillions of dollars into the banks is not socialism. It is stupidity if the banking system isn’t restructured. We just paid more for CITI than what CITI is worth and only got 40 percent. That isn’t socialism. It is trying not to offend the capitalists at tax payers expense.

    • Ferd Berfle

      Agreed.

      It seems as though a lot of people are getting hung up on misused words and their misapplication. Oblahblah isn’t a socialist. Hell, he is owned by international conglomerates and is wholly-owned a subsidiary thereof. His masters don’t care about small-business or small-anything. And That One doesn’t really care about his bots or about anyone or anything else, for that matter. He will talk-up whatever keeps him in the spotlight and gets him that attention-fix he craves beyond anything else.

      That One is finishing the job Dubya, a man who intensely hates the Federal government unless it was giving money to him and his friends, started. Buck Ofama and Fush, two of the worst miscreants ever to inhabit 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. We had an opportunity to set things straight the last election cycle with either the election of HRC or McCain. This kind of wretch will continue to be elected until the electoral sheep pull off their blinders and put the brakes on the political pendulum that keeps swinging wildly from one extreme to the other.

      • NoBamaNoWay

        correct; BO is only continuing the plundering of america for his own gain and that of his moneyed interests, just as bush did. they care nothing about the average citizens or the future of america as a great nation.

        they see american democracy just as an illusion to be maintained to placate the masses, while the aristocracy sucks every drop of blood and sweat they can out of us poor working suckers.

  • Texas Playwright

    BS on that “tight, tough” campaign, Larry. Lying, cheating, stealing by DNC/Dean/Brazile/Reid/Pelosi/bho the fraud/Axelrod/Plouffe/ACORN and all the rest. We Americans have got to stop rewarding such criminal campaign actions. Congratulalting anyone for cheating to a “win” is immoral/amoral.

    bho knows zip about our country. He is a user. That’s all.

    • inconsiderable wretch

      Yes, why

      • inconsiderable wretch

        Sorry: Why grant even for the sake of an argument the absurd notion that BO plans and executes original ideas, such as effectively managing to steal the election? Instead let’s continually stress the questions raised by getfitnow and foxyladi14: who are his managers? who conceived the grand scheme? what is their ultimate goal? how long has BO been groomed for this?

        • Ferd Berfle

          Refer to my post above. He is a subsidiary of ICC, international corporate conglomerates.

    • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

      Not to mention spending close to a billion dollars to get “elected”…That;’s not a tight campaign, that’s buying the presidency. PLUS all the rest you said so well, Texas…

  • getfitnow

    AMEN, Texas Playwrite. I only see BO as a messenger and, yes, user. I’d truly like to know who the puppeteers are.

    • http://noquarter foxyladi14

      that’s the real question???
      who are they???

  • Peggy Sue

    I think you drew a very insightful line, Larry:

    “In the same way that the media enabled George W. Bush to launch an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq they are now playing cheerleaders to your nonsensical plan.”

    Yeah, this is same old, same old. With the exception of Fox News and the business channels, I don’t hear a lot of analyses or explanations to how “debt is good” and accumulating more debt is the golden answer to our economic woes.

    I listened to Trump and Forbes last night and they’re absolutely beside themselves in terms of how idiotic this plan is, how you couldn’t do the reverse of what will work any better. But then, they’re actual, on-the-ground business guys.

    I’m afraid what we have right now are a bunch of academics and political toadies, too eager to pull out the magic formulas and experiment with the country’s future–mine, yours, everyones. Even the unborn because our grandbabies are going to feel the brunt of this mindless spendfest.

    Maybe I’m being paranoid but it almost feels that this craziness is deliberate, motivated by something and/or someone we’re not aware of.

    Scary times!

  • cynic

    From 1995 through 2006, republicans had a continuous majority in the House of Representatives.

    From 1995 through 2006–except for a brief interruption from June 2001 through December 2002, owing to the newly Independent status of former GOP senator Jim Jeffords–republicans also had continuous control of the Senate. From 1995 through 2000 they had an actual majority. In 2001 the Senate became evenly divided, but republicans still retained control due to the election of VP Dick Cheney, which gave republicans power to organize the Senate. Upper hand in the Senate didn’t actually shift to the democrats until 2007, following the 2006 elections.

    The idea that the set-up for the economic crisis somehow took place subsequent to the 2006 elections is patently absurd. Since things were already falling apart in early 2008, I suppose we’d have to conclude that the new democratic majority somehow accomplished most of that during 2007.

    If we agree that the conditions culminating in the crisis were actually a long time building, it’s hard to lay the blame exclusively on the one-time minority party.

    It seems obvious to me that the culprits were actually in the financial industries. They got away with what they did because their activities were inadequately regulated. If we want to blame politicians, we should look to those who promoted that situation.

    • Patience

      Rep. Barney Frank, 2003:

      “These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis. The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.”

      So, Chris Dodd, Barrack Obama and Barney Frank were the top recipients of F&F and their ilk’s campaign contributions during the last 10 years for nothing?

  • Sassy

    For the two years the dems controlled the Senate, their specialty was holding huge signs with the number of the newest republican filibuster.
    They were in “hog heaven” with old George W. on the ropes!
    The last thing they wanted was to rein him in, and possibly enable his party.
    Now, they have the same problem as the mutt who catches up to the truck it’s chasing!
    What to do?

  • sybilll

    I am new to this site, have spent an enjoyable hour reading the content, and I am just getting started. The insightful, intellectual articles speak to me, as do reader comments. I may sound surprised. I am. I got here from a scathing post at DU that portrayed this as a site that promotes Presidential death threats and armed insurrection. (I love trolling there to see the minions who think BHO is not Progressive enough). Alas, I find none of that here (no surprise). Great find indeed, and I will be looking forward to more.

    Mods and/or owner, this is the slanderous link that brought me here, but if this is against your TOS, please delete it immediately:
    http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8233009&mesg_id=8233009

    • kgirl

      Kill Obama? Oh hell no! Infact they would turn in anyone who came on here and tried. Young and the Restless should never be interrupted for at least 2 weeks for an obama funeral it would be like 9/11 all night all day news coverage with the same pictures cycling over and over again. To borrow from Jessie Jackson Sr.”Keep Barack Alive!”, it’s enough that he seems to hold a press conference every day, and his face in on every magazine. Nah let the arrogent putz live. That way he can shaft the people who put him in office and I get the delicious joy of saying I told you so. i just ordered a whole bag of crow to feed my friends, family, and co-workers, and it would be a shame if it went to waste.

      • sybilll

        Unless Jessie doesn’t know the camera is rolling, and wants to “cut his b@lls off”. Thanks for the reassurance, BTW.

        • PainkillerJayne

          Sybill…….Welcome and Happy posting!

          • snosandy

            sybill, welcome to the land of the sane. I’m certain you will like it here.

    • Obamastolemyboyfriend

      Stick around No Quarter if you are seeking truth and stay the hell away from those Dumb F’s at Democratic Underground. What a bunch of dicks over there and I don’t mean Cheneys!

      You’ll definitely learn something here and they can back up all they say!

      BTW, I was a Clinton supporter, who then voted McCain. Why? It’s the person, not the party who will bring down a nation.

      • NoBamaNoWay

        word; i was a daily visitor to DU since the very beginning (under various user names, as i had a habit of being banned); i quit that site completely during the primaries because of their insane, vicious, misogynistic worship of The One.

        there are some good links and news there, but those people are not about finding the truth; they are about shilling for their own orthodoxies and interest groups. dissent is not tolerated. it is scary if these people think that is any way to run an organization that is supposed to support the political party which now running this country.

  • politicsIsdirty

    I TOLD YOU SO!

    The Messiah will lead us into economic Armageddon.

  • Carol HAKA

    Impeachment of each and everyone of the perpetrators is the only way out of this!