Debt Debate in Congress

[Red Arrow]

1/2the head aches....

I didn't say anything about it being a Union shop.   

[Gaspar]

There are tremendous similarities between Reagan and Obama presidencies.

In his second and third years, Reagan faced unemployment well over ten percent and it started to come down by deficit spending. November of 83 it was 8.5% and November of 2011 it is 8.6%.

Those are some striking similarities.  If it was spending alone that causes a turn in joblessness, then by that logic, we should be rolling in jobs right now.  Actually, if that logic holds, according to the math we should have negative unemployment under president Obama's spending.

Since that is not the case there must be some other element introduced by Reagan, but not present within president Obama's formula.  What could that be?

Anywhoo. . .I heard an interesting comment at lunch yesterday while discussing this subject with a less than conservative friend.  He said that the reason President Obama has not seen the job growth that Reagan saw was because the rich liked Reagan, and hired people just to make him look good, and they do not like President Obama, so they are refusing to hire people just so he will look bad.  I found that a very interesting defense. 

Does anyone else think that businesses don't like President Obama, and are therefore holding back just to get him out of office?

[Teatownclown]

No President wasted more money than this goon.... 3 trillion plus.

I must say this interviewer has too much chutzpah. And I will say Bush was a man of his own convictions.

[Red Arrow]

Does anyone else think that businesses don't like President Obama, and are therefore holding back just to get him out of office?

If businesses don't like Obama so much, the next question would be why?

[Gaspar]

If businesses don't like Obama so much, the next question would be why?

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but perhaps businesses are racist?

I mean, there can't be anything he's done to make them dislike him.  Can there?

[Red Arrow]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but perhaps businesses are raciest?

I mean, there can't be anything he's done to make them dislike him.  Can there?

I doubt it.

From Google:

raciest superlative of rac·y (Adjective)
Adjective:   
1. Lively, entertaining, and sexually titillating.
2. (of a wine, flavor, etc.) Having a characteristic quality in a high degree.

[Teatownclown]

I doubt it.

From Google:

Iphone spell checker? or intentional?

[Gaspar]

There are tremendous similarities between Reagan and Obama presidencies.

In his second and third years, Reagan faced unemployment well over ten percent and it started to come down by deficit spending. November of 83 it was 8.5% and November of 2011 it is 8.6%.

You know. . .now that I think about it, I'm glad you mentioned that.  The BLS changed the way they calculate unemployment in 1994-1995.  Instead of counting unemployed against existing population of working age, they started counting against "labor force" (those working, or actively looking for work).  This meant that anyone who stopped looking for a job, or obtained part-time employment were no longer counted. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1995/10/art3full.pdf

That's why we keep hearing that our effective unemployment rate is about 20% now.  So it seems that Reagan really didn't face as much of an unemployment hurdle at 8.5% as President Obama does at 20%.  

So even if you forget the percentages, the average duration of unemployment spiked to 20 weeks under Reagan.  We go well over 40 weeks now, and with the new calculation method, the moment someone "leaves the labor force" (gives up), or runs out of benefits and gets a part time job, they are no longer part of the equation.

I find this rather discriminatory.  I think there are a lot of people out there that would appreciate being counted as unemployed.  We need to get rid of the Clinton era BLS calculations, and show unemployment using real numbers.

[Conan71]

And I will say Bush was a man of his own convictions.

He wasn't much for focus groups, was he?

[Gaspar]

Iphone spell checker? or intentional?

Funny.  My Android actually doesn't know the word "racist."  

[guido911]

Yippee!!! More debt.

[RecycleMichael]

No one is in favor of more debt. The issue is why we have a federal government that does this.

Obama is trying to create jobs and asking Congress for the ability to go further into debt. The last President took us spiraling into debt for a war.

Which of the two would I prefer?

Guess.

[Townsend]

Yippee!!! More debt.

We probably can't even get most of them to flip the lights off when they leave the room.

[Gaspar]

I bet he will have it spent in less than 60 days after it's approved.

We have to pay for votes with tax cuts and unemployment checks, and we have to pay those out of Social Security, and we have to pay Social Security out of loans from China, and then we have to pay interest on the loans from China out of the loans themselves, and then when we run out we just raise the debt ceiling again.

Buy stuff on AMEX, pay AMEX with MasterCard, pay MasterCard with Visa, pay Visa with Discover. . .get a home equity loan to pay off Discover and charge more stuff on AMEX!  KEEP GOING! Imagine all the miles!  Fly around the world and play golf with campaign donors. Sling some stimulus cash to keep donors happy.  Deliver more unemployment checks.  Make Fanny and Freddy pull more cash from the poor and middle class trying to get mortgages. . .Shhhhh!  "Put the rest on my China Card!"  Jobs?  Jobs are for suckers. If it ain't public sector, it ain't $h!t!  

[JCnOwasso]

This week, while no one is looking, the president will phone in a request from Makaha Resort & Golf Club, on the island of Oahu.

He will ask for a $1.2 Trillion increase in the debt limit, pushing it past 16 Trillion dollars, or about $135,000 per tax payer!

What does the location of the call have anything to do with this?  Would it be better if the call was being made from his Crawford Ranch in Texas???