Debt as Reality

While the Obama naysayers (from the left, the center, and the right) continue to blame Obama for the slow recovery, they seem incapable of understanding facts. Add to this the fact Obama doesn't shy away from being blamed, and you end up with a remarkably obtuse conclusion as to why we are where we are today.

I admit I would love to see Obama call people on their crap, drag them out on the carpet and see how they would defend their "ideals" against hard facts. But as the dumbing down of America continues at breakneck speed, at this point I don't know that it would do any good. Ultimately, Obama is going to have to say to somebody, not just some faction, but an actual person, "You are lying, and not only that, you are lying to forward an agenda that is in way in the interest of the American people." That does go against what a reasonable person would do. You don't wrestle with a pig unless you're willing to accept the fact that you're going to get as dirty as the pig. And of course, who in their right mind would do that?

Unfortunately, the politics of the day has descended into the pre-school fight over toys. The old "you can't make me, you can't make me" argument apparently passes for adult discourse now. And of course, the facts are tossed out the window, because facts don't help you say "you can't make me."

However the graph below, the facts of which has been shown in any number of models, is a fact. A fact recognized by the CBO, the GAO, any number of respected economic analyzers.

And as any fool can see, the tax break for the rich is just going to get larger.  And that amount is based on fairly conservative estimates in the growth of income for the wealthy.  I think the choice is clear.

Stimulus Plan Failure? Not bloody likely.

While Tea Partiers and republicans alike are calling the stimulus plan a failure since 2009, it fails to recognize what it did accomplish.  While Obama and his camp predicted 3.5 million jobs would come as a result of it, in February of 2010, 3 different independent economic research firms [ http://www.tnr.com/topics/ihs-global-insight; http://www.tnr.com/topics/macroeconomic-advisers;http://www.tnr.com/topics/moody ]  stated that the stimulus had already resulted in 1.6 to 1.8 million new jobs.  And that it eventually would result in over 2.5 million jobs. 

Updated research since then, by the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the stimulus resulted in 1.2 to 3.3 million and would ultimately have the impact of creating the equivalent of 1.5 to 4.6 million full-time jobs ( the CBO is a non-partisan arm of the legislature,  [ http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12185/05-25-ARRA.pdf ] )  As far as the amount fraud initially predicted by the republicans, it has been practically non-existent compared to the funds for Katrina (a bailout in everyway) and of course the Iraqi reconstruction.  Only 1.9 million dollars have been found in fraud as prosecutable, compared to the billions during the Bush years.  Maybe Democrats are just inherently more honest.  That's a horse I'd bet on.

While the levels the economy have dipped to were not foreseen by Obama, neither did anyone else.  And the foresight the Obama administration showed in dedicating a sixth of the stimulus to Green Energy can only pay off in benefits for our country.  We have to face facts.  The amount our country is putting into research and development of Green Energy is still a drop in the bucket of our GDP, when compared to what portion other developed countries are putting into it.  Even oil rich countries like Norway are putting MORE total dollars into their programs than we are.  That's not good enough.  Not by a longshot.  And not a single GOP candidate has expressed any interest in extending our efforts.  In fact, most have spoken of only more drilling and pulling back on Green efforts.  And that's called capitalist cronyism.

How a CYA of the BOA became TNT (or at least should have been)

Great Moments in PR Comedy, Starring Rick Perry and the B of A - The Atlantic

Once again, the Bank of America proves itself to be both semi-criminal and incredibly inept.  How these guys have not been prosecuted for their role in the 2008 meltdown only speaks to the ineptitude of the SEC.

The SEC is an arm of government that Bush already bled almost dry.  People like Perry would love to get rid of it completely.  I suppose Bachmann would too, but that may be expecting a bit much in her comprehension of the world around her.  And misguided Tea Partiers would welcome such a move.  After all, it's the government, it has regulations, that affect business, how can it possibly do any good.  And since all those bad bankers got away with what they did, the SEC must not be doing it's job.  So let's just get rid of them completely.  Makes perfect sense to me.

I seriously would love to see a brain scan of TPer as complex things like the constitution, the SEC, basic economics.  Just to see what part of their brain becomes active, if at all.