A 6-MONTH REPORT CARD ON OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS
Gary Ater
September 04, 2009
...The GOP's Eric Cantor falsely claiming that the stimulus has failed when only 40% of it has been distributed.
After more than 6 months in office, it´s time to see what the results are for the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress to date.
Based on the hysteria that seems to be so prevalent with the GOP, and especially over at FOX News, they are very concerned that the recession and the economy are showing some positive signs. The Republicans in congress are now very concerned that the economy might finally be reacting positively to the stimulus package………."And remember, that´s the package they didn´t vote for". In fact, House Representative Eric Cantor is so concerned that he flat lied and suggested that "Since the stimulus has obviously failed, we should pull back the remaining stimulus funds and use them to pay down some of the country´s debt." (The original debt that the GOP politicians gave us.)
The talking heads on FOX News and of course Rush Limbaugh & company continue to call the new president a; Socialist, Communist, Marxist, Fascist, or Hitler-like dictator, even though most of them don´t have a clue as to what the difference is between these governmental systems. The crazy FOX crier, Glenn Beck continues to lose his TV and radio sponsors (over 50 sponsors have backed out due to his calling President Obama a "racists".) Mr. Beck even went to the point of using a soviet style "hammer and a cycle" on his program for claiming that Obama is somehow trying to sponsor the making of America into a communist nation….? (Glenn needs professional help…really!) And today, it would take someone using very fast shorthand while listening to FOX News in order to keep up with all the lies that are stated on that channel in any given hour. Sure looks like panic and desperation at FOX News from this point-of-view.
In one embarrassing FOX street interview, a "less-than-intelligent and totally uninformed" FOX supporter and protestor carrying an anti-Obama sign stated that; "He had a copy of the U.S.S. Constitution that he had read it and nowhere did it say that the government could take over health care".
Well first, the U.S.S. Constitution is a is a navy ship and second, neither the government, nor Obama is taking over America´s health care system.
But I digress. Let´s look at some of the results from the last 6 months in the US with a Democratic president and government:
HEALTH CARE REFORM:
I will be the first to say that there have been too many hiccups from President Obama and the Democrats regarding the very complicated health care reform plan. When these issues are allowed to be so complex and complicated, it provides large areas for the opposition to lie and distort what the real situation is for the American public.
In order to try and settle everyone down and to simplify the issue and get out the real truth, the president is giving an address to a joint session of congress next week. (This is usually only done for the annual "State of the Union" speech or for major emergency issues such as declarations of war or after national issues such as the 9/11 attacks.)
The word on the street is that the president will either be caving in to the Republicans or he will be stating more of the details of what he wants in a final health care bill. He may remove some of the more contentious items that would further simplify the bill but still keep the basics of real reform and health care cost reduction.
The latest statements from the Republicans in Congress are that they would basically not support any bill from the Democrats, especially one with a "Public Option". President Obama was at first expected to withdraw a number of the "olive branches" that he had been offering for a bipartisan bill. However, is the president going to give in to the right? The GOP has made it very clear that their members obviously don´t want their names on a bipartisan health care reform bill with a "Public Option".
I guess we´ll just wait and see.
AMERICAN JOBS:
Just as it was during the "Great Depression of the 1930´s", the last trailing indicator that a recession or a depression is over is the return of jobs. That will also be the case with this recession as well. The market and economic indicators are showing that we are in a recovery, but there will still be more job losses before unemployment turns around.
The good news is that the "bleeding of jobs" is beginning to stop. At 216,000 jobs lost last month, that was the smallest monthly job loss number over the last 12 months and only 1/3rd of the monthly losses back when Obama took office. Back in the 1930´s, it took FDR´s administration seven years to get the Great Depression´s unemployment down from over 25% to 13%. Today´s US nation-wide unemployment is at approximately 9.7%. A normal unemployment rate is about 4-5%.
US AUTO SALES:
Due to the "Cash for Clunkers" government auto rebate program, 690,000 cars were sold. That was the first auto sales gain in 21 months. The August sales gains were led by Ford, Subaru and Hyundai. The "C for C" government rebate program also is expected to improve American´s air quality by up to 10% as well as an improvement in lowering the sale of "gas at the pump" for all of the new higher mileage cars.
Due to this injection of funds, it has jump-started getting buyers back into the auto show rooms even after the program was stopped a couple of weeks ago. The dealers are offering other sales incentives w/o using any government funds in order to get the public back into the auto dealerships.
US ECONOMY:
As expected, after 6 months, the US government stimulus package is finally starting to show some progress. As of today, including the middle-class tax cuts, less that 40% of the stimulus has been awarded. The final 60+% of the stimulus program will be distributed over the coming 12-18 months.
Even the Wall Street Journal headline (The WSJ is owned by Rupert Murdock, who also owns FOX News), says the "US Economy Gains Steam at a Faster Pace Than Was Widely Anticipated"
The economy in the current quarter declined by only 1%, where as it declined 6.4% in the first quarter.
The president is also proposing $85 Billion in tax cuts for the working poor.
US HOUSING MARKET:
USA Today says that "Green Shoots of Recovery Show End of [housing] Melt-Down In Sight".
Home sales of single family homes increased for the 5th straight month. (And this was for new housing due to the $8,000 tax credit for 1st time buyers.) Repeat single-family buyers also increased due to their taking advantage of today´s lower mortgage rates.
US FOREIGN WARS:
>>> Closing of Guantanamo Prison is still on schedule.
>>> Withdrawal from Iraq still in slow progress.
>>> Special Persecutor appointed by the US Attorney General to investigate CIA detainee torture issues.
The decision of what to do with the Taliban in Afghanistan and with the al Qaeda hiding in Pakistan is the lingering question for the Obama Administration. This will take more time and discussion on what the new mission will be for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It is also disconcerting when war hawks like the conservative George Will write columns recommending that Obama pull the troops out of Afghanistan and to only use cruise missiles, drones and focused CIA or Special Forces hit squads. Where was "Silent George" about an illegal US invasion of a country that did not attack America?
Well, in a nut-shell, this where we are after the first 6+ months. Let´s just hope the health care reform and the economy are dealt with in a positive manner over the coming 6 months.
Copyright G.Ater 2009
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