Obama Playing ‘Four Corners’ Offense in Budgetball
By Larry Doyle on July 21, 2009 at 9:01 AM in Economy, Sense on Cents (Larry Doyle blog), U.S. Treasury
I thought Barack Obama liked basketball. Lovers of the game coerced the NCAA to utilize a 24-second clock in order to speed the game up, showcase players’ talents, and render the North Carolina ‘four corners’ offense ineffective. What was the basic premise of that offense? Stall tactics.
Well, welcome to the Brave New World of the Uncle Sam Economy where there is none other than President Obama working the budgetball around in true four corners fashion. The Associated Press reports White House Putting Off Budget Update:
The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today’s bleak landscape.
The administration’s annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama’s budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.
The release of the update – usually scheduled for mid-July – has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town Aug. 7 on its summer recess.
Who is playing ball with Barack? Tim Geithner, Peter Orszag, Larry Summers, and Austan Goolsbee, along with every other member of his administration. No surprise. The question begs, though, who is playing defense to expose this purely partisan political stall tactic?
Why is Obama “dribbling around” and dishing the budgetball into the corners? Little doubt he is concerned that public opinion will continue to turn against his increased deficit spending across the entire spectrum of his programs, primarily health care.
Obama is obviously hoping he can score a backdoor layup on healthcare shortly before Congress goes out for their August recess and without having to explain to the public just how bleak the economic landscape appears.
The AP reports:
The administration earlier this year predicted that unemployment would peak at about 9 percent without a big stimulus package and 8 percent with one. Congress did pass a $787 billion two-year stimulus measure, yet unemployment soared to 9.5 percent in June and appears headed for double digits.
Obama’s current forecast anticipates 3.2 percent growth next year, then 4 percent or higher growth from 2011 to 2013. Private forecasts are less optimistic, especially for next year.
Any downward revision in growth or revenue projections would mean that budget deficits would be far higher than the administration is now suggesting.
Recall that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently projected a less than robust .8 reading for the United States GDP in 2010. I highlighted the disparities in economic projections from the IMF, CBO, and OMB in writing “GDP Projections from IMF, CBO, OMB.”
With a figure anywhere close to the IMF projection, the federal deficit will soar and the ‘tax train’ will be coming ’round the bend!!
Obama is certainly not the first President to try a ‘four corners’ approach in delivering bad news. That said, our economy is screaming for transparency at this time.
A four corners approach to budgetball is not only boring, but also economically unhealthy. Let’s start with truth, transparency, and integrity and go from there.
LD
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Careful “No Quarter”!
“Anti Obama” web sites have been targeted by the “Pro Obama” legions.
Several web sites have been under cyber attack since Sunday.
Two have been knock down for long periods of time.
These same things were done to “Pro Hillary” sites during the Primary Fight in 08 — Remember.
Well as Obama’s numbers slip and Health/ Stimulus/Cap & Trade heat up they are back to their old tricks.
These “new cyber attacks” are more focused and intense.
Just a heads up.
Ed from HotAir said it was an internal error, not an attack. They are back up now.
“Both Hot Air and Michelle Malkin sites were down from the wee hours of the morning until just a little while ago. This was human error and corrected as quickly as possible, and both sites are now humming at max efficiency. We got a lot of suggestions about what may have caused the problem, but I can tell you that we weren’t hacked — and Amazon didn’t throw our sites down the Kindle hole, either, a joke which a few people sent me on Twitter.
We’re sorry for the inconvenience. We’ll wear the Cone of Shame for it, and we pro — squirrel!”
I thought so–have been trying to log on to Hot Air and Michelle Malkin wihtout success this am.
“Obama Rallies Army Of Bloggers For Health Care Fight”
Headline on the Huffington Post today.
Veterans of the Hillary V Obama battle know all to well what this means.
Several sites have been attacked and are down.
They play hard ball when they have their backs to the wall.
They believe that “all is fair in love and war” and they have gone to war.
Russia’s first strike against Georgia was a Cyber attack.
The Obamatrons are doing the same thing.
It will get a lot worse between now and their August deadline.
Notice the term ” Army of Bloggers”
You need a real game plan this time to keep your message up and running.
Network your sites, set up a network that keeps you informed.
Stay nimble, “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”.
Stay focused on your message and keep up the “Fire Power”.
Use all outlets — Call Glen Beck etc and get your message out.
I haven’t been able to get onto Hot Air either but I’ve also had problems with Politico.
ok I am not nuts. I have been trying to get on Hot Air for 2 days.
If what you suggest is happening we are in for a very long and ugly winter of intellectual oppression.
If he can’t dazzle us with his oratory or confuse us with Sal Alinski’s tactics his minions will gag us.
That is a scary prospect.
Chinese Web sites close amid tightening controls
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090721/ap_on_re_as/as_china_internet
To be direct about it, Ozero wants his “health care reform” passed before the CBO tells the country that we can’t afford it.
And he may use reconciliation to get the bill passed . . .
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/07/20/obama-may-use-reconciliation-if-no-health-bill-by-october/
If he can’t get it passed before the Budget assessment comes out it may be too late.
WAR IS PEACE
IGNORANCE IS BLISS
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
Change is the same
Hope is despair
The Anointed One is a fraud.
The bombshell that will go off in Congress today is Neil Barofsky’s report on the actual size of the bailout and financial stimulus costs–close to $24 trillion dollars!
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1240-TWENTY-FOUR-TRILLION-DOLLARS.html
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1245-CNBC-Attempts-Assasination-on-Barofsky.html
These figures do not come from some radical O-hating financial analyst, but from “Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general over the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)” who is “the government’s top watchdog over the $700 billion financial rescue package.” The figures are merely a compilation of the government’s own calculations. This is a government watchdog doing the job that we hired him to do!
I’m afraid this report is going to make the 4-corner delay strategy a little more difficult to implement.
WOW – that hitjob by cnbc is horrifying!!
Yes–the moderators on CNBC are attacking Barofsky for trying to call attention to the government’s actual numbers. They are in effect aguing against transparency, and implying that Congress and the public should be kept in the dark about what’s actually going on! Outrageous!
Thanks for putting me on to Denninger’s show and blog. They are excellent!
bho the fraud is still bho the fraud–at the expense of our safety, survival and democracy.
Keep blogging NQ and other honest sites, and tell We the People the facts.
We the People, call your politicians, form rallies and show up IN PERSON to protest the abuses of the frauds in the executive and legislative branches who would rather ruin this country and her people than take a stand for right and the hits that come along with it. Show some guts, citizens, and the thugs in the WH and on the Hill will back off.
If anyone is actually still waiting for honesty, integrity and transparancy from this group, I’d like some of that LSD you’re taking.
Words, just words, is all you’ll ever get from Obumble because that’s all he’s good for and only as long as someone else is telling him what to say.
In the future please be a little more specific about who “this group” is.
Thanks LD.
I appreciate all the effort in keeping us informed.
President HooBama!
Hoover + Obama = “HooBama”
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
Even scarier yet… If Obama is new Hoover then who is new FDR this time around? The question remains… did the guy know from the start he was to be playing the role of new Hoover? In an odd way, I almost feel for the guy… almost. Was the bone thrown to the guy a tainted bone?
I think Obama isn’t just playing budgetball, he’s playing dodgeball too!
looks more like racket ball..
I think Obama and Congress’ embrace of the banks and Goldman Sachs and the dismantling of FDRs regulations are unconscionable. I understand the charges of Fascism.
HOWEVER – I want Single Payer Government health insurance, just like the other countries and the “Socialism” stigma doesn’t bother me one bit.
I am a Canadian/American that had two operations in Canada before I moved here. My family continues to enjoy Canadian health coverage. I am horrified at the OUTRIGHT LIES that are being broadcast and even more horrified that Americans might believe them.
As an employer here my Blue Cross coverage for employees only (we can’t afford to pay for wives and children too – unfortunately so the employee has to shoulder that considerable load), is $25,000. per month.
I also have a company in Canada but no employees. I went to see what it would cost me as an employer for COMPLETE coverage for employees no matter their marital status. Here is my cost as a Canadian employer:
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/english/taxes/eht/
I urge all U.S. small business employers to do their homework on the internet and see that subsidizing the American Health Insurance industry is destroying our ability to compete internationally. Check out the costs in other countries.
The Banks are sucking the life out of our economy on one side and the Health Insurance Industry is doing the same on the other side – twin leeches that are destroying us.
And I agree – who has guts enough to lead us out of this catastrophe?
I am in general agreement with you in principle. I don’t think basic health care should be a for profit business. Call me a socialist, but that is how I feel about it. The problem is can we trust the reformers any more than we can trust the capitalists that run our present system? Can we trust that after reform the capitalists still won’t run health care except with a something on the side tax for Washington and overall higher costs to real patients? After a long struggle with it, I don’t think we can trust the reformers… especially if we aren’t getting a single payer system from it. I agree I have watched the bash Canada propaganda and I still don’t see Canadians in hordes migrating here for the freedom to choose a doctor. That might work until they get their first emergency room bill… then they might rush home. I have a neighbor that had a hysterectomy a couple weeks ago. The procedure was done in the hospital in the morning and the patient was home that night. The procedure went without incident. So far the bills are totaling over $30,000. So far. They keep coming. This is beyond contemptuous. This is a legalized mafia.
Hmmm. well I had the same operation in New York at mt.Sinai with an excellent doc and it cost $6,000. and my insurance at the time coveredd it. So I don’t know what hospital or doctor did your friend’s hyster that cost $30,000. Doesn’t make any sense at all.
Hmmm. well I had the same operation in New York at mt.Sinai with an excellent doc and it cost $6,000. and my insurance at the time covered it. So I don’t know what hospital or doctor did your friend’s hyster that cost $30,000. Doesn’t make any sense at all.
Thank you Doceider. Yes it is legalized Mafia, but without the family values.
BooHooBama!
I know zip about basketball and the economy, but I’m interested in the August deadline everyone refers to. A friend who is a mortage broker said in September, there will be another baloon payment on another group of mortages.
She suggested this might be the reason for the increase in the number of people saving money right now. Perhaps this is the reason for the push for immediate action on Cap and Trade and the health package also? If it isn’t done before Sept. 12, the problems in the housing market will make passage impossible? Does any of this make sense Mr. Doyle?
Hungery spammer ate my post?
Regarding the “delayed” mid-session budget report, it is almost always late. On average +2 weeks. In fact, going back through the Reagan years, its been late 61% of the time. Reagan turn his in late 7 out of his 8 years.
Obama turning this in late is hardly rare or unprecedented.
All this information is available here:
http://www.rules.house.gov/Archives/RL32509.pdf
As always you it is all about politics and smashing Obama with your BS.