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At U.N., Obama faces problems on larger stage

By Laura MacInnis WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, grappling with a poor economy and slumping approval ratings, faces problems on a larger stage this week at the United Nations, with challenges to his …

Publish Date: 09/19/2011 8:35

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/at-un-obama-faces-prob_n_969141.html

RealClearPolitics – Obama: Failing the Lincoln Test

Obama: Failing the Lincoln Test. By Michael Gerson. WASHINGTON — During his recent speech to Congress, President Obama gave Republicans this ideological glove to the face: "We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the …

Publish Date: 09/13/2011 3:00

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/13/obama_failing_the_lincoln_test_111312.html

What President Obama Inherited

Obama inherited a deep recession and financial crisis resulting from problems that had been building for years and those responsible include:

Borrowers and lenders on Wall Street and Main Street.
The Federal Reserve.
Regulatory agencies.
Ratings agencies.
Different presidents and Congress.

What Obama Will Bequeath?

Huge deficits.
Massive interest payments which could ultimately destroy the Republic.
Higher inflation.
A weaker dollar.
Pressure for higher taxes.

What Exactly Did Obama Enact?

An $825 billion stimulus package.
The Public-Private Investment Partnership to buy toxic assets from the banks.
Cash for clunkers.
The home-buyers credit.
The auto bailouts.
Five versions of foreclosure relief.
Numerous lifelines to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Financial regulation and health-care reform.
Energy subsidies.

Which Succeeded?

The auto bailouts?!

Even though a rapid private bankruptcy was preferable and GM and Chrysler are not yet de-nationalized successes, we can I believe, mark this up as a success.

Which Failed?

The stimulus bill cost an astounding $280,000 per job which is over five times median pay, as reckoned by the administration’s inflated estimates of jobs "created or saved", and much more using more realistic estimates.
Cash for clunkers cost $3 billion, just to shift car sales forward a few months.
The Public-Private Investment Partnership, despite cheap federal loans, generated 3% of the $1 trillion claimed, and toxic assets are still hindering some financial institutions.
The Dodd-Frank financial reform law institutionalized "too big to fail" amid greater concentration of banking assets and mortgages in Fannie and Freddie.
The foreclosure relief program permanently modified only a small percentage of the four million mortgages the president promised.

The economic records set on Mr. Obama’s watch are historic and no corporate CEO could survive such a clear history of failure.

Under The Obama Administration Watch:

The US experienced the first downgrade of sovereign U.S. debt in American history.
Relative to GDP, it now has the highest federal spending in U.S. history with the exception of the peak years of World War II
The highest federal debt since just after World War II.
The fraction of the population working is the lowest since 1983 and long-term unemployment is by far the highest since the Great Depression.
Job growth during the first two years of recovery after a severe recession is the slowest in postwar history.
Home-ownership rate is the lowest since 1965 and foreclosures are at a post-Depression high.
The share of Americans paying income taxes is the lowest in the modern era, while dependency on government is the highest in U.S. history.

Can Or Will Obama Recover From The Catastrophes?

Based on his present ratings in the polls and the fact that the economy has little or no chance of improving before the elections, one would have to say, "No he will not recover!".

And to make a comeback even less likely is the likelihood that the Obama administration will try to deliver more of the same things that failed.

Just fourteen years ago Obama was an active member of the New Party (read Communist) and he didn’t quit; it got shut down by the courts. Meaning that there is no reasonable chance that he will switch to anything like a free market economy, soon or ever!

The Obama Plan to Redistribute Housing | Libertarian Party

www.lp.org10/29/11

First Obama tried to redistribute wealth before he was President, by leading the charge to force banks to make loans to lower income Americans who could not afford to own homes (through the Community Reinvestment Act). …

Applying Obama's “redistribution of wealth” to school grades …

usamericanfreedom.com11/19/11

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan”. …

Obama and the liberals could perhaps have achieved both growth and redistribution, but they chose only the latter, and they will pay heavily for their error on Tuesday!

Will Obama change direction after the elections?

No He won’t!

During his election campaign Obama said:

“What people really want is fairness”.

“They want people paying their fair share of taxes”.

“They want that money allocated fairly”.

Redistribution Of Wealth

People thought it sounded good and they voted for him, but they didn’t know that he would immediately attempt redistribution of wealth, and he went for it full throttle in spite of the recession.

What the vast majority of Americans believe in however is economic growth, and they understand full well that the threat of having more and more money taken away as you get richer and richer is simply a demotivator.

The result, motivation went down, small businesses stopped hiring and unemployment went up and stayed up; and in some states it’s still getting worse.

Then Came ObamaCare

With motivation down, the Obama administration then committed another horrendous error of judgment – they rammed ObamaCare down a mostly unwilling nation’s throat.

Obamcare essentially subsidizes health insurance for low and middle-income groups and attempts to recover the cost by taxing high-earners even more, which in turn lowers motivation and causes people to hunker down instead of trying to grow their businesses.

And what makes it even worse is that low and moderate-income workers now feel no need to earn money because they can now maintain the same standard of living with even less effort.

Obama’s Response?

Seeing popularity wane both for him personally and for his policies Obama set out a stand and tried to sell the public his unwanted wares.

Expanding health care coverage was somehow going to somehow drive down costs.

Handouts to state and local governments became a stimulus package.

Climate change legislation became a “green jobs” bill, and so on.

When the voters didn’t buy his arguments his response was to tell them that, “They are confused and not thinking clearly” and that one statement will cost him dearly.

You don’t tell people that you want to vote for you that they are basically stupid if they don’t understand you, do you?

Harry Reid just said something equally stupid and it might cost him re-election in Nevada, “He saved the world economy!”.

Doesn’t he know that Oblamer is the One?!

Could Obama Have Played It Differently And Maybe Won?

Yes, he could have!

Obama could have embraced at least two policies that would have enhanced both equity and economic performance simultaneously, and some of them might well have bridged the ideological divide.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Loan guarantees should not have been provided for Fannie and Freddie because they shifted risk from participants in real estate transactions to taxpayers, and the caused capital to flow into the industry under very favorable terms.

Creating the guarantees allowed mortgage lenders, realtors, homebuilders, developers, securities traders and others to reap enormous gains during the boom, only to later dump their losses on taxpayers during the ensuing bust.

Cutting off all federal support for Fannie and Freddie would have sent a completely different message.

It would not only have greatly enhanced equity, but would also have helped steer investment away from ever more conspicuous McMansions and into productive endeavors like building newer, more-efficient factories, all of which would have stimulated economic growth.

* “McMansion” is an originally pejorative term used to describe a large house, particularly in the United States, that is constructed using modern labor-saving techniques and materials

The Tax Code

Another area that was ripe for reform would have been the loophole-ridden tax code.

Today, the proliferation of carve-outs means that only around 40% of personal income is taxed!

The loopholes should have been removed as much as was possible and the tax base broadened, after which the Obama administration could have slashed rates, enhanced equity, and provided a huge stimulus to the economy.

Instead, the administration did exactly the opposite; it added even more loopholes and promised to raise rates!

Right now we have a situation where similarly situated families often face vastly different tax burdens depending on their ability to game the system, and it also means that investment is steered away from companies that are adept at building better products, to those with the knack for lobbying.

Will Obama Move The Goal Posts?

Obama was a member of the New Party (communist) just 13 years ago, and he was no teen.

Michelle is a Black separatist of the worst kind as her Princeton thesis shows.

Obama is on record as saying that he’d rather be a great one term President than an ineffectual two termer, so we can sadly expect him and Michelle to continue to try and force their socialist/communist on America!