Obama’s Address to the Nation
ME2
We believe that we are in a depression that will take until 2018 to resolve. We have issues that are so overwhelming we just think that if we hold our breath and wait while Obama throws his magic bullets against the wall, that one will stick and make it all better, in 18 mos. Is that as long as anyone can hold out?
We are thrilled that Obama did such a great job outlining his intentions and putting specific timelines into his action plan, a fresh approach to problem solving. The question is can he do it and did he connect the cause-and-effect dots? Quite frankly he has done more in 40 days than we ever expected from George in the last 4yrs. so if he does nothing but give us motivational tapes, that’s more productive than before. The Prez. is positive and forward thinking, despite the political roadblocks he continually faced these past weeks from the Republicans who had no better ideas and no possible political gain either. They are bitter. They just couldn’t help themselves. Like the black knight in Monty Python’s, “The Holy Grail”, still fighting with an arm and a stub of a body left. Their main claim was that Obama has been too negative about the economy.
In case you guys didn’t get the memo-and seems like George didn’t either-WE ARE IN A CRISIS. What do the Republicans expect this President do or say after this past cracker-jack administration? Do they expect the Obama administration lie to us, like George did and continue to disrespect us? Or say to us that we do not know what we are seeing, that everything is great and our economy is ‘thriving’ when we are spiraling into oblivian after a ‘job well done’? The rational thinking coming in from the Republican right, after all that has been said and not said, done and not done in these past 8 yrs., is as rational as a hooker on crack. On a good day, their most recent GOP leader nominees have been comical, out of touch, completely hypocritical and delusional. No mystery there, either.
There are other mysteries that came to mind after we watched and listened to his speech.
Why does The Prez. say that he will have all the troops out of Iraq within 16 mos. but still leave 50,000 troops there? That is not ‘leaving Iraq’. They want us out. We should be out and never have gone there in the first place. They have more money than we do to help themselves, so…? Why are we keeping our troops hanging around there and not focused on Afghanistan where we should have gone years ago? To ensure our oil futures? What is the real motivation?
How will all of Obama’s grandiose efforts to remove earmarks and unnecessary spending abd fgo line item for line item really make a substantial “dent” in our overall deficit issue. With all due rspect to John McCain, we see his concern about wasted spending but we cannot ignor the fact that he knows that this “waste”is not a priotoirty for our country and that is clear that he uses this as a campaign left-over to keep him alive. Thanks John, we see it. We also see that those earmarks that you complain about, has created jobs. Yes, it’s all about private interest, but at this point who cares if it creates jobs Also, the total amount of spending on earmarks does not even factor into our big issues especially when we just need to get people working again!
Obama is creating jobs in solar energy, infrastructure maintenance, education and healthcare and also to help Joe’s ‘ground-control-neighborhood-watchdog-team’ to eliminate fraud and corruption. After all this in put into place is it just a bandaid to currnt disaster relief or will we ever be able to ever ever ever begin to pay off the 10 trillion dollar debt we will have by end of this year without laying massive debt on future generations? Are we so deeply in debt that our ballooned deficit is not even a factor to consider right now? Why even mention reducing our debt? It makes no sense. Something keeps coming to mind…Fall of the Roman Empire. We are so far in debt, our dollar is not worth the paper its printed on and it is not ours to save anyway. I suggest we go back to our global community whom we have bailed out time and again and ask them to return the favor and cancel our current debt with them or just send cash.
Obama’s promise to give tax credits to parents sending kids to school is crucial. If parents can’t pay their kid’s tuition, kids either don’t go or get a loan that will haunt them them forever. We think the 155 mil. dollar funding for 126 health centers to give preventive and primary healthcare will help the medical industry from going into bankrupcy and also keep people healthy. The extension of unemployment and Cobra will relieve a lot of people from losing their wig and going postal. Taxing the rich is necessary. Regardless of where or who it comes from, Obama’s team must allocate the funding across all sectors and to the proper organizations without lobbyist pressure. We all need help so lobbyists, get in line. Severely damaged markets and sectors will create wind-tunnel-sized-gaps in the economy if we do not infuse them with job opportunities/money. Entire industires disappearing would be catastrophic. Like retail, The Arts… I am still not convinced that giving more funds to banks and the auto giants will save/create jobs when autoworkers got laid off the day the CFO got the checks. Is this ‘hanging on to American tradition’ just an ego trip?
I am no economist and certainly not a mathematician but it seems to me that to produce loans and cars again, people in the middle class need to be working and making at least a 50,000 salary to buy these American-priced cars and take out these leveraged loans. These jobs are in middle management, retail stores, banks, corporations, mom and pops, salons and spas. How will commercial jobs be replaced? Where do the unemployed autoworkers work who used to work at factories that is now producing American-made cars with our bailout money? No one will go out and buy cars or a house if they are out of work or about to lose their jobs. No job and you cannot get a loan. I wonder if we’ll get a 40% off tax-exempt car coupon glittered with fairy dust. We love Obama!
We think Obama’s ideas are off to a great start. A forward focus on new clean coal production, solar production and conversion, producing cars back in US, infra-structure construction and maintenance, education and IT specific healthcare jobs are all great strides to resolve our unemployment crisis. That will take care of many but I’m not seeing much recovery for jobs my friends need, who are, in fact, our consumers. They work in upper and middle management, designers, sales reps., musicians and artists in creative and performing arts, lawyers and retailers. What will we do? Half of my friends wouldn’t know a jackhammer from a screwdriver; are as computer illiterate as I am and maybe took Biology in high school so the famous eco-science-and-building-conversion fix is out of the question. IT is definitely not a job option. We can make these new millennium solar bubbles look fabulous and market them. What national program can employ our creative heads, fashionistas and corporate straphangers?
Why can’t the GOP find anyone in the Republican Party to represent them? We know many Republicans who are more equipped to govern their co-op board than the candidates they have nominated to follow George’s legacy. Bring back Newt, at least he’s smart, crazy and insane, but smart. The current GOP nominees do not fit the profile of the Republican Party. Who are voting these candidates in? How’d they get Jindal, anyway? Did they pull him out of his office on Bourbon St. and say, “Hey Jindal you’re next. You’re Indian, young and have a pretty smile. The most hysterical irony is that when conservatives speak, they speak to the far-right 10% of Republican good ‘ol boys from Texas. Those boys are not going for the young, female or person of color prototype that makes their party look like a Felini cast. Remember, they were appalled and embarrassed by Palin’s incompetence even though they probably just wanted to pinch her cheeks. Now that the words that came from Jindal’s mouth were so preposterous, who knows what their coveted 10% think now. Even Limbaugh has no intention of coming up with anyone- he just wants to make noise. Would love to know what brilliant ideas he has and where he’s hiding his pool of awesome Republican-freedom-fighters-but-take-your-tax-breaks candidates who are perfectly primed and prepared for their ‘Don’t take from government’ mantra.
Jindal claims that he is proud to enrich his citizens with independence and not extend unemployment benefits or healthcare/Cobra to the people of Louisiana. He claims it is irresponsible and not the govt’s. responsibility to help them when they can help themselves. He claims that his citizens need to enable themselves and not look to the government since it has been known to fail with Katrina. Jindal, that’s great in “Alice and Wonderland” but if you do not have jobs for them now then please tell us where they are going to work? How can they survive without a job, especially when most of them are still living in your dilapidated FEMA trailers/mold traps trying to recover from your Katrina disaster. Another Republican disaster that should have not happened had you guys put your hard-earned Mardis Gras cash to good work and fix the dam and levy when it needed it 15 years ago. That brings me to Jindal’s comment that the national government’s role in Katrina is an example why you should not trust our US government to handle your life. It was his party that was in control of the government at the time of Katrina that he is talking about. Should we not trust you with your big smile? or Republicans? I actually agree with you. Your citizens would be better off playing Texas hold ‘em with tarot cards than to trust you at the helm.
The best mystery of all. Why does anyone want to pay top dollar to hear George speak when he had nothing to say for 8 years?? Have we all lost our minds? Is the world on tilt? George is getting his ‘ol coffers back and has been booked to do 12, hi-paid speaking engagements in 10 cities. What do you think he has to say now? “Hey folks, well I guess my team and I screwed up our economy, foreign relations, housing and employment for years to come. Ugh…So what? We still believe in America, don’t we? We’re strong, resilient and we will make it thru…”.
February 25th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Jindal’s respose to Obama’s State of the Union was absurd, out of touch, and idiotic. Who knows who the Republican’s are going to pick from this latest jumping off platform.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:17 pm
We have all heard a lot of talk on reform for many decades and about a year into each new presidency, we seem to lose the fire under our butt that the new face of the presidency brings along with it. Is this just another form of learned helplessness? Do we settle for picking our battles and unwillingly concede to the fact that the power of one is not always as inspirational in reality as it is in a boxoffice smash? Is it our fault or their’s? and where is that line of separation between us and them?
I must say, with the recent change of power and the inertia that will bring, I sit hopeful that we can turn the state of our nation around before it is really too late. However, I go out into the world everyday and see the ramifications of our faiilng economy which has touched nearly everyone I know. We can come up with creative antecdotes one way or the other about whether expanding government intervention is the way to go or not, but I would really like to know how they plan to juggle the money to bail people out of their situations. On a corporate level…well, don’t even get me started. But on a micro level of personal lives being effected through subsidized child care, heatlh care, etc there needs to be some revisions and nobody is really talking about that.
I am a Director of a child care center/preschool. I am responsible for taking care of children from 70 families in my community. I am a single mother. I have a Master’s degree. My work ethic is my integrity. I work a minimum of 60 hours a week. I earn approximately $30,000 per year. I have no health or dental insurance. So how much does it irk me to see these people with multiple children, working part-time or not at all and doing better off than me?
Example: There is a woman I know who has 2 children, a GED, and doesn’t work. She signed up for some classes at the local Community College and suddenly she has it made. She gets $534/month in Food Stamps, $185/month in AFDC, complete health coverage for herself and two children with $0 copays including dental coverage, Her tuition and books are completely paid for, and she gets a stipend for living expenses that is around $7,000-$9,000 per semester. Oh, did I mention they also pay $420/month for her childcare expenses for her 2 year old to attend daycare full-time even though she is only out of the home for a few hours a week?
I know life is not always fair, but something is very wrong with this picture. I hope the stimulus package combined with reallocation of government subsidies can help those of us who are really in poverty…the ones that try the hardest and don’t make enough to get by very easily, but make too much for help…we are the ones who are suffering. Due to the job market crash, this class is the one that will need the real bailouts as this is now our fastest growing sector…not just mortgage rescue and talks of healthcare reform, but by restructuring our social system, prides and prejudices, and everyday injustices. I fear some of us are really screwed!
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I just read your article and responses and I must say Dayna touched on an important issue that isn’t fully being addressed. The poverty line now lies within the income bracket of $30,000-$50,000. I am a perfect example of this growing phenomenon. I, too am a single Dad and I have my son about 50% of the time. I am ordered to pay $524/month in child support (which I do with a happy heart). I am educated and work an administrative job earning $38,000/year. However, my job does not offer health or dental benefits. I am responsible for covering my son on my healthcare plan. I had to work with more than a few brokers to find a possible solution to affordable healthcare. Because I was diagnosed with asthma as a kid and found myself in the emergency room a few times over the decades, I am considered a Tier 2 Risk factor to most insurance companies. This put normal PPO and HMO coverage premiums in the $1,200 to $1,700/month range for us both. I only clear about $2,200/month. I have only given you two of my obligatory sums and you can already see how the numbers just don’t add up. So I settled on a high deductible/minimum coverage alternative managed under a Health Savings Account (none of which is contributed by my employer). This brought the monthly premiums down to $336/month, but nothing is covered at all until I have met a $3,000 deductible each separately. So in the end, we are not really covered for anything unless we should have a major catastrophe. Of course dental coverage was not an option under this plan, so I prayed for the best. But as these things will happen…I broke down and took both my son and I to the dentist last week for regular cleanings only to walk out with a conservative dental treatment plan totalling nearly $30,000 in necessary work. I am good with my money and feel I make very responsible decisions for my family, but even I can’t make these numbers work…all this just to make sure we are healthy!!! I am not trying to keep up with the Jones’, I just want to make sure that me and my son have the right and and access to address our basic needs. After all, I followed the path to the American dream. I am educated, I work hard, I kiss up when I have to…but it turned out to be just not enough. Where do we go from here?