President Obama Joins the Cult of Economics Deniers

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/08/15-4

A front page story in Sunday's New York Times gave the country the bad news. President Obama is no longer paying attention to economists and economics in designing economic policy. Instead, he will do what his campaign people tell him will get him re-elected, presumably by getting lots of money from Wall Street.

The article said that President Obama intends to focus on reducing government spending and cutting programmes like social security and Medicare. This is in spite of the fact that: "A wide range of economists say the administration should call for a new round of stimulus spending, as prescribed by mainstream economic theory, to create jobs and promote growth."

In other words, President Obama intends to ignore the path for getting the economy back to full employment that most economists advocate. Instead, he is going to cut government spending – because his chief of staff and former JP Morgan vice president Bill Daley and his top campaign adviser David Plouffe both say this is a good idea.

While people are justified in having little respect for economists – almost the entire profession missed the $8tn housing bubble that crashed the US economy – it is still scary to see that policy will be determined by people with no knowledge of economics whatsoever. After all, do Daley and Plouffe even have a theory as to how cutting government spending could help the economy?

More at the link --

[dennis4868]

1. sure...

that's why he's running around the country right now talking jobs and raising taxes on the wealthy...WTF? SO MUCH BULLSHIT COMING FROM THIS WEBSITE LATELY.

[yarn_chick]

2. He's a bit late on the jobs front. It's been a problem since before he was elected.

Every once in a while he makes a speech about focusing on it, he moves on to something else and the little he has done hasn't been enough to make a substantial drop in the unemployment rate and there's still the issue of the 99ers that Obama can't even be bothered to mention. And he's still going on about incentives and prattling on about trade agreements which does nothing but COST us jobs.

Obama had the chance to do something about raising taxes on the wealthy and he BLEW IT. And this debt ceiling "compromise" (more like capitulation to the Republicans) will not let him do what really needs to be done to stimulate jobs which is to stimulate demand.

Talk is fucking cheap. Haven't you figured that out yet?

[dennis4868]

7. Like many other DUers...

you simply have no clue how congress works...Obama is not a king...come on lets say that together 100 times, Obama is not a king and cannot make laws himself...WTF? Spineless dems in congress, obstructionist repubs, and Obama gets the blame on DU...crazy shit I tell you!

[sabrina 1]

15. And you conveniently forget that he had a majority

in Congress and in the Senate and you and others who want to shift the blame from the man who said he wanted to lead this country, to Congress, ignore that when you say this, you are stating that IN THE MINORITY, Republicans were able to get what they wanted.

So, here's your logic:

1) Dems in the majority
2) Republicans in the minority and without control of the WH CAN get things done.

You need to stop this. It is a huge insult to the Democratic Party and to this President.

The reality is that this President made decisions that were just plain WRONG and gave power to the party the people threw out with his policies of 'bi-partisanship' and 'compromise'. And no one any longer is puzzled by this, except those who desperately want to deny reality for some reason.

Wall St. is running this Government and there is no one even trying to stop them.

Now, we the people have to decide what to do about it and are not in the mood for all the usual excuses. Any one of us who failed so miserably and then did nothing but offer excuses, would have been fired long ago.

So, what is your solution? Give Dems the majority AGAIN?? That didn't work because according to you the poor things need to occupy every seat in Congress before they can get anything done.

So, what is your solution? A president who caters to Wall St. who insists on 'Compromise' rather than 'fight', you know, with the Republicans, who are the 'other side, the side with BAD IDEAS'. I'm anxious to hear you solution to this problem rather than more excuses.

[Mojambo]

3. He's very good at talking about those things. n/t

[xoom]

4. + 1

[myrna minx]

5. So do you have any evidence to contradict this NYT piece?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1739507

:shrug: Is this the direction you think our country should be taking?

[dennis4868]

10. like many DUers...

you think Obama can pass laws by himself...frankly, repubs will not allow anything to get done that will improve the economy....nothing will change until we elect more dems into congress...as Obama said in 2010, "don't give the keys to the car back to the repubs." We didn't show up and vote; repubs have power and now we are mad at Obama for having to work with repubs! crazy shit!

[myrna minx]

16. So you can't provide evidence to the contrary in the article, but instead you

claim to know what I think based about two simple questions that I asked. The President does not pass laws by himself, however he is responsible for framing his own message in how he engages in debate with republicans. Do you agree with the direction he's going according to the NYT article?

[leftstreet]

9. He ran around the country in 2008 talking about those same things n/t

[dennis4868]

11. so?

we still need to rebuild the infrastructure...if he talked about it in 2008 that means he cannot talk about it now? WTF? By the way, you do know there are repubs in congress and they obstruct to everything, right?

[leftstreet]

12. Good luck with that. He just recently said it's not up to gvt to create jobs

:rofl:

[dennis4868]

13. you are lying...good try...typical DU shit...

he never said govt cannot do anything to create jobs...hard to debate people who just fucking lie their asses off...

[leftstreet]

14. lol n/t

[Confusious]

17. talking is the operative word in your post

Action? not likely.

[dtexdem]

6. Joins, or comes further out in the open with his preexisting ideas?

In any case, if he campaigns on cuts to Medicare and SS, he will lose my vote, no matter who the Repuke nutcase candidate is.

[dennis4868]

8. hyperspeculation at DU!

HAHAHA! I love this place...makes me laugh...seriously.