Reality check
Bookworm on May 10 2009 at 11:55 am | Filed under: Barack Obama, Economics, Media matters
Jennifer Rubin pithily sums up the insanity of the government’s cheerful report on increasingly higher unemployment numbers:
So to be clear: we’re headed for double digit unemployment, the very thing the stimulus bill was supposed to stave off. We didn’t keep unemployment anywhere near 8% as the administration predicted — but we did rack up a whole lot of debt. The administration tells us this is all a ray of sunshine. And they said George Bush was cut off from reality.
I’m getting the sense that, with numbers like this, even the fiercest Obama partisans who resolutely cheer on the man and try to insulate him from criticism are getting the feeling that all is not right in Denmark.
Related posts:
- Reality check
- Reality check for the economic equivalence argument
- Living in an alternate reality *UPDATE*
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Book linked to an article by Bob Herbert (Obama supporter), which I think is worthy of a few quotes:
If the national unemployment rate rises, as expected, to the vicinity of 10 percent next year, the poverty rate for black children would rise to 50 percent or higher, analysts at the institute believe.
[...]
Much of the impact of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus efforts is still to come, but those efforts were never narrowly focused on the need for job creation and are not nearly large enough to cope with the mammoth job losses that are occurring. The official unemployment rate for men is already at 9.4 percent, and for black workers 15 percent.
Hopefully those supporting Obama will understand that it never was about jobs or job creation. Only those jobs that fit the narrow social agenda are good enough to be created, and there aren’t that many of those.
There are literally millions of jobs in the oil, gas, and nuclear industry to be had, if we were to open up our resources for use. But oil, gas, and nuclear power are not on the approved list, so those jobs go wanting, and the people to fill those jobs go hungry and suffer. The worst rates of job loss over the last two years can be characterized as “men laborers”, in fields such as construction. Opening up oil and gas fields, building refineries and nuclear power plants would literally save these people and their families from economic hell.
So, Bob Herbert, please realize soon, that it never was about jobs. That was just one of those phrases Barack Obama liked to toss around when he needed people to feel all comfortable and happy about choosing him. “Jobs” don’t matter at all to him, and they never will.
Such hypocrisy. They feel entitled to brainwash the American people into thinking Bush was able to tank the economy. In reality, of course, the Democrats specialize in destroying economies. That’s why they didn’t like Bush’s economic policies. They gave too much power to the poor. The poor needs to be crushed and stomped on, so that the poor have no other recourse than the Democrat party.
Check this reality check out
Here’s hoping I can integrate that with the post I sent to Bookworm recently on the subject of psychological preparation.
From a Wolf Howling post yesterday…
“What if we hold a treasury auction and no one shows up?” That was the question posed by Ed Morrisey at Hot Air after a Treasury Auction saw the Treasury having to offer higher than planned interest rates to induce buyers to purchase our government’s bonds. The answer – it means trouble for the economy. As the Heritage Foundation puts it, “[t]his is just the first sign that the debt-based Obama economic stimulus plan is about to become a major drag on the recovery, just as expected.”
And as Ed Morrisey points out, the rise in Treasury interest rates that resulted from the most recent auction means that the huge defecits forecast by the Obama administration – and, for that matter, the even larger defecits forecast by the Congressional Budget Office – are already unrealistically low.
It comes with the usual chart showing the massive size of the Obama debt spending. I guess their whole idea is that by summer 2010 the massive debt problems will ease. And the government printing presses will be churning out the dollar bills – based on no economic footing whatsoever – but inflation won’t have begun to spike yet. All that giving the Democrats the best shot at retaining power via the 2010 elections. What with ACORN fraud sliding 1-4% of the vote toward the Democrats, it just might be enough of an effort.
Now, the Democrats are not the only ones who plan the effects of economic policy around elections. Everyone does it, to try to get the most favorable effects to occur in the few months prior to the elections. But it is a very dangerous game to play – see the catastrophic financials collapse that hit in late summer that absolutely doomed McCain and the Republicans in 2008, as the investments shenanigans finally reared their ugly head.
So, the Democrats have their plan, and there’s no possible backup plan available. Wow.
More on the topic:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/04/22/when-will-the-press-catch-on-to-uncle-sams-collections-meltdown/
Is California worse off than Michigan? I’m from Michigan so I’ve been following that slow meltdown for years, as its Democrat-controlled legislature and government drove the entire state into its sorry state.
California, usually considered about 1/7-th of the national economy has seen revenues (total tax value) decline by about 50% from last year, month to month. There is no way to survive that kind of collapse, is there? And Ahnold and his Democrat friends in the California legislature are pulling the three-monkey circus (hands over eyes, hands over ears, hands over mouth: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil). Well, fellows, when the mile-high tsunami is on the horizon and growing, that-a-ain’t-a-gonna work for very long. Responsible stewardship by your government! And so many people appear to want total government control…
I don’t know if it’s better or worse…but this guy is either on the same page you are or you’re checking out the same sites I am! He has a link to the California Secretary of the Treasury site…
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1030-The-Economic-Tsunami-Is-Curling-Over.html