Politics Obama - Actually doing a good job?

“We're not going let our campaign this discussion be dictated by fact-checkers”

 

I did not write "nothing of note" for President Obama, to the contrary, I gave him credit for several things in a previous post. I think his overall grade is a D. I think he has failed to address some of the most important and most pressing issues of his Presidency. He has been MIA on these issues. In some ways President Obama should be re-elected so he can deal with the issues he passed on to 2013. Think about it - after 4 years of talk about tax increases for the rich, no taxes have been increased. 4 years of talk about deficit spending - no spending cuts. 4 years of talk about lowering health care costs - cost are up. 4 years of talk about making college more affordable - costs are up. 4 years of talk about ending war - we are still at war and close to another war with Iran. Etc. Etc. Etc. And what I find most shocking is that as a community organizer from inner-city Chicago that experience should have transferred into some real changes, conditions are worse in Chicago and many other urban centers!
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How is the GM bailout working for the US tax payer?

 

The estimated cost to taxpayers has recently risen to $25b but will largely depend on the price when the govt. unloads its millions of shares.

Balanced against 1+ million jobs saved and the savings to taxpayers of $28b in resulting lost tax revenue.
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I read a report the other day that the original TARP passed under President Bush's administration will actually turn a profit for the tax payers. Even though I was against TARP, it is nice to know it will turn a profit. Think GM will turn a profit for the tax payer? If not why consider it a success, private investors could have taken the risk.

I heard a talking head today supportive of President Obama say that Romney should be up by about 10 points in the polls but since he was such a bad candidate he is trailing. Why would an incumbent President with a high popularity rating be down by 10 points assuming the Republican put up a better candidate than Romney? What was he really saying about President Obama? I thought it was an unintended insult to President Obama, actually reflecting his performance and worthiness of being reelected. Love to read your point of view on this.

 

A cost of $25b to prevent the loss of $28b in tax revenue and 1+ millions jobs is a success. As Clinton noted.......arithmetic.

It says the same about Obama as it does about Bush who was polling below 50% in approval going into his reelection and probably would have lost to a better candidate.

 

why do you assume GM would not have come through a normal structured bankruptcy? For example United Airlines restructured through a normal bankruptcy.

Given hindsight President Obama should have passed his tax rate increases on the rich in his first year and got it done. Can we at least agree on that? If he had done that some of the uncertainty would be behind us. And worse he signed an extension of the Bush Tax Cuts that he did not support, pretty weak. He did not lead, he followed and then complained about it - I guess it is that kind of stuff that irks me the most about President Obama.

 

Of course the details are different. Judicial bankruptcy has formal laws/regulations/rules governing the process and can accommodate differences in the detail. Bankruptcy law is not new or uncertain. I don't understand your point.

 

oh yeah he represents everyone.. when he says 'you didn't build that' he doesn't represent me. or when he says he believes in wealth redistribution, or abortion, or the NDAA, or the illegal wars, or bailouts etc.

it's just words. he can say he's embracing everyone but his policies are 180 degrees from that.

i feel so good about him saying he hears my voice and works hard for me even though i didn't vote for him. that just put a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart.

 

Wow. You built roads on your own? I'm impressed.

 

Politics and public policy is all about compromise and consensus building, particularly in a time when the country is more divided politically than ever.

Unfortunately for the country, compromise and consensus building is anathema to today's Republican party and far right rigid ideologues (social/religious conservatives, Tea Party republicans, R Paul libertarians).

 

wow. he was referring business owners not building roads.
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i am unpatriotic for not paying my 'fair share', and he considers his entire base a 'victim'. going on letterman and saying he's for everyone isn't coming from the heart that's for sure.
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why is comprimise always viewed so highly in politics. i mean you're either pro abortion or pro life, for bailouts or against bailouts, pro gun or anti gun. what's the point of comprimise? if you remain unsure of your stance on those positions you probably shouldn't be running for office or voting. if i vote for a republican i expect there to be 0 comprimise on 90% of the issues.

 

He was referring to business owners who haven't built roads. Do you really think that the president doesn't think that small business owners build their businesses via hard work? Really? That's fucking nuts. Seriously.

While I agree that there are things that ought not to be compromised on, unless you're a fan of the dictatorship model, which maybe you are, compromise is an essential part of the political process. Even your god-like founding fathers had to utilize no small amounts of compromise to generate the constitution, get it ratified, and keep the country whole in its first several decades.

 

Apparently, he's not representing anyone then. In my opinion, he's done more for you, samcol, than he's done for me.

I don't see a single payer health care system
I don't see higher taxes for the top 4%
I don't see the closing of Gitmo or the end of extraordinary rendition
I don't see a jobs program
I don't see a reversal of the Bush tax cuts
I don't see any appreciative gains toward clean-energy
I don't see an overhaul of agricultural subsidies
I don't see a whole lot of what he promised me

Then again, I'm not narrow-minded or naive enough to believe that any President can perform magic all by himself. Seeing him struggle to compromise with a Congress whose main objective has been to guarantee he didn't get a shot at a second term by refusing to work with him on his agenda (or anything near the center), hoping he would get the blame for ineffectiveness come election day, softens my ire towards him some.

What does Obama's support of the Roe vs Wade ruling regarding abortion have to do with the fact that it is still in existence? Do Presidents have the power to overturn such things? Maybe you should be blaming the Supreme Court.

What President Obama may believe about any given thing is not an indication of his representation unless he has actually acted on those beliefs. I'm at a loss to understand how anyone can consider themselves a responsible voter if they cast their ballot based on how a candidate feels about certain issues rather than whether or not they will perform in the common interest of all. Such is the silliness of the single issue and values voters, I guess.

You might get what you're looking for with a Mitt Romney Presidency and the current Congressional & Supreme Court makeup but my guess is, if it comes to pass, you'll regret it in ways you can't even imagine right now.

 

Ask the people who worked for Pontiac and Saturn how they are doing today. GM cut them first, and they probably won't come back. And those job losses ripple through the local economies. Dealers close, parts suppliers slow down. Normal bankruptcy would have seen lots of workers flee to other jobs, the foreign companies would be doing much better. Who would buy a car knowing that they might not be able to get parts for it in 10 years or at least they would be hard to find?

It would have let GM management dump a lot of pensions onto the government though and created big problems for lots of those people.