Posts Tagged ‘dollar’
October 4th, 2011 by John Feehery
Originally posted on THE HILL – October 3, 2011
It might be too early to start analyzing what went wrong with the Obama administration in its first three years, but I am going to do it anyway.
Here are seven turning points that led to the president’s decline and fall, seven places where Obama or his Democratic allies made critical errors that forever altered the course of his presidency. He hasn’t done everything wrong, but he has made enough mistakes to make his reelection extraordinarily difficult.
1. Failed to veto the initial stimulus package: Imagine for a moment if Obama had vetoed that initial stimulus package. Imagine if he insisted that Democratic leaders take out all the pork and cleanse the bill of unworthy projects. Imagine if he had insisted that congressional Democrats work with Republicans to include their ideas, because we are all in this together. He would have immediately branded himself as a different kind of president, as someone above the fray, as a leader who cares first about the country, not the Democratic Party. And if he had done that, he would have had the Republicans hopelessly divided. Of course, he didn’t take that step, congressional Democrats were able to walk all over him and Republicans stiffened up their resolve and presented a united front against the president and his plans. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Bush’s tax cuts, David Plouffe, Democrats, dollar, election, George W Bush, Government, healthcare, House Republicans, Nancy Pelosi, Obama Administration, Obamacare, olympics, Politics, Republicans, spending, White House
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, Politics, Presidential election, election, health care, medicare, national security, spending | 1 Comment »
August 5th, 2011 by John Feehery
The world is going to hell in a hand basket. The stock market just crashed as if Congress allowed the President to default on our debt payments. Europe is in the same shape financially as it was in 1946.
So why am I focused on the Infield Fly Rule?
I don’t know. I thought it would be a pleasant diversion from the negative news we see every day.
So, for those of you who don’t follow baseball, the Infield Fly Rule, according to Wikipedia, is: “The infield fly rule is a baseball rule that is intended to prevent infielders from intentionally dropping pop-ups in order to turn double plays (or triple plays). Without this rule, a defense could easily turn a pop-up into a double play when there are runners at first and second base. If the runners stay near their bases to tag up, the defense could let the ball drop, throw to third base and then to second, for a force-out at each base. If any of the runners stray too far from his base, the defense could catch the pop-up, and double-off any runner that failed to tag up. When the rule is invoked, the batter will be out (and all force plays removed) regardless of whether the ball is caught, thus negating the possibility for multiple outs.” Read more...
Tags: America, American League, Baltimore Orioles, Barack Obama, baseball, Bourbon Democrat, Congress, Conservatives, Cy Young, Democratic Party, Democrats, dollar, Gilded Age, Government, Grover Cleveland, Infield Fly Rule, National League championship, progressives, spending, stock market, The Depression, World Series
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Fun, Gambling, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Theory, baseball, sports | 2 Comments »
August 3rd, 2011 by John Feehery
The President turns 50 tomorrow, which is a big deal, especially to the President’s fundraisers, who are doing their best to milk it for all it is worth. Apparently, they are throwing a big bash for him in my hometown of Chicago. My invitation must have got caught up in my spam filter.
50 isn’t nearly as old as it used to be (especially if you are 47, like a blogger I know pretty well), and to many old-timers who depend on Social Security and Medicare to survive, 50 is pretty darn young.
I was talking to a neighbor of mine who happens to be a big Democratic activist, and he told me about how panicked his 84-year old mother was over the possibility that she wasn’t going to get her Social Security check.
She comes from a generation where they listen closely to their political leaders, and when the President says that Social Security checks may not be delivered because America can’t pay its debt, that generation takes those threats seriously. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, Democrats, dollar, Economy, election, GOP, Government, health care, House Republicans, medicare, President Obama, Presidential election, senior citizens, Social Security, Social Security checks, spending, voters, Washington
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Presidential election, Reviews, Theory, bad news, election, health care, medicare, spending, taxes | No Comments »
July 28th, 2011 by John Feehery
Charlie Stenholm, the former Congressman from Texas
Charlie Stenholm, the former Congressman from Texas, perennially sponsored and pushed for a balanced budget to the Constitution. Charlie was a Democrat, and sponsoring the balanced budget amendment helped him immeasurably in many, many campaigns.
Old Charlie could vote like a Democrat on most things, but sound like a fiscal hawk because he was the sponsor of the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.
Congress after Congress, the balanced budget amendment would come up for a vote, and Congress after Congress, the BBA would just barely die in the House. One year, it even passed the House and it almost passed the Senate. Ironically, it was a Republican – Mark Hatfield — who ended up killing it in the Senate when it did pass the House.
House Republicans are now pushing the Senate to take up a balanced budget amendment as part of the Cut, Cap and Balance plan. That all sounds very well and good, and as a good little Republican, I support the concept of the Cut, Cap and Balance plan.
But I have one little nagging concern about the CC and B plan. Read more...
Tags: balanced budget amendment, Bob Casey, Bob Corker, Cap and Balance plan, Charlie Stenholm, Claire McCaskill, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Cut, Democrats, Denny Rehberg, dollar, Economy, election, House Republicans, Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Hatfield, Politics, reform, Republicans, spending, Tea Party, Tom Carper, White House
Posted in Education, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Media, Politics, Theory, election, spending, taxes | No Comments »
July 21st, 2011 by John Feehery
Bad reason: Opposing the grand bargain because you think a grand bargain would help President Obama get re-elected.
Good reason: Opposing the grand bargain because you think raising taxes will hurt the economy.
Bad reason: You strongly support a tax increase because you want to stick it to Republicans.
Good reason: You want to get rid of tax breaks and loopholes because you think it will help create jobs and make the economy stronger.
Bad reason: Taking a pledge to not raise taxes because you want to get Grover Norquist off your back.
Good reason: Deciding to take only one pledge – the pledge to defend and protect the Constitution, because you think that a politician who can’t think for himself and use his best judgment shouldn’t be elected in the first place.
Bad reason: You want to cut spending because you want to stick it to poor people who should be working hard just like you do.
Good reason: You want to cut back on spending because you believe that in the long run, if we don’t scale back our government spending, our nation could face financial ruin. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, debt limit increase, Democrats, dollar, Economy, election, Government, health care, House Republicans, medicare, President Obama, reform, Republican, spending, taxes
Posted in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Presidential election, Theory, bad news, election, health care, spending, taxes | No Comments »
July 18th, 2011 by John Feehery
The media loves to spend time speculating about how John Boehner and Eric Cantor are going to round up the votes to pass President Obama’s debt limit legislation.
But they haven’t asked one of the most important questions out there? Where’s Nancy?
The former Speaker and now House Minority Leader has been mostly kept out of the negotiations, and when she is included, it is mostly because they need a picture of the joint leadership.
Pelosi, though, has taken a position even more radical than those crazy Tea-Partiers, who refuse to vote on the debt limit without some spending caps put in place. She not only wants higher taxes, but she wants to make certain that there are no changes included in any entitlement spending.
It is customary that on a Presidential priority, the President’s party in the Congress works with the President to achieve a goal.
It used to be that on something controversial, like an increase in the debt ceiling (or a Congressional pay raise), that the President desperately wanted and that the President’s opposition did not really want, that the President’s party, even if it were in the minority, would provide enough votes for passage. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, debt limit, Democrats, dollar, Economy, election, GOP, Government, House Minority Leader, House Republicans, John Boehner, Michelle Bachmann, Nancy Pelosi, Politics, President Obama, Republican, Republicans, Senate, spending, taxes, Tea Party
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Laws, Liberal Media, Media, Politics, Promises, Theory, spending, taxes | No Comments »
July 11th, 2011 by John Feehery
In the context of the debt limit, Democrats have been pushing for tax increases because they want to punish the rich. They believe that because the so-called rich pay only 80 percent of the tax burden that they should be forced to pay more.
In their view, the only way to really inflict shared sacrifice is through the tax code.
The problem with that assumption is that it isn’t true. There are plenty of ways to include rich people in the shared sacrifice without raising taxes one dime.
And in fact, Republicans have already made proposals that would make the rich bear more of the burden.
By calling for the means testing of both Social Security and Medicare, Republicans have taken the lead in calling for shared sacrifice. Of course, when it comes to spending, there is more that could happen.
For example, rich people shouldn’t qualify for agriculture subsidies. They shouldn’t qualify for Pell Grants and they shouldn’t get preferential treatment for college admissions (that is aimed at rich minorities, of which there are more than a few).
Rich corporations shouldn’t get subsidies of any kind – not marketing subsidies, not tax subsidies, not pension subsidies. Read more...
Tags: America, debt limit, Democrats, dollar, Economy, Government, health care, John Boehner, medicare, reform, Republican, spending, tax burden, tax code, taxes, taxing the rich
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, History, Laws, Politics, Promises, Theory, health care, medicare, spending, taxes | No Comments »
July 7th, 2011 by John Feehery
Reduced to the absurd.
Ideologues on both sides of the philosophical divide fall dangerously into this trap.
Conservatives who believe that government does not need to exist are every bit as wrong as liberals who believe that the private market must be completely controlled by the government.
The truth is not somewhere in the middle. It is exactly in the middle.
Government exists because it must. As much as some might wish it away, the world requires that order be achieved by some governmental structure.
We are fortunate here in America because our founding fathers had the presence of mind to create a constitutional system whereby as much as possible, we govern ourselves through our participation in a representative democracy.
Without government, there would be chaos.
Governance has been an evolutionary process. We learned from the Greeks how to do it (Madison, Mason, Jefferson and Hamilton knew their Greek history well), but learned from the English as well, from people like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.
None of the Founding Fathers thought that we could get away with no government. They just didn’t want oppressive, unfair, unjust and un-representative government.
So what do we need government for? Read more...
Tags: America, Conservatives, dollar, Economy, Founding Fathers, free-market, Hamilton, health care, Ideologues, Jefferson, Madison, marketplace, Mason, spending, taxes, taxpayers, Thomas Jefferson, Wall Street
Posted in Economy, Government, History, Politics, Theory, health care, national security, spending, taxes | 2 Comments »
June 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
Ben Franklin was the one who first said that the only inevitable things in life were death and taxes.
These days, the same could probably be said for debt and taxes, but that doesn’t mean that the debt limit should include tax provisions. Here are seven reasons why:
Raising taxes during a slowing economy is bad policy: The economy is in danger of backsliding into a recession. There are more signs of a double-dip than there are in a Baskin-Robbins. Democrats seem intent on raising taxes on rich people, but right now, that could take money out of the private marketplace, inhibit investment and push our economy off the cliff.
The Republicans won’t, because the Democrats didn’t: Six months ago, with overwhelming majorities in the House and the Senate, the Obama administration decided that the Bush tax cuts they hated so much were good enough to extend for two more years. It is awfully hard for the president to make the case that the policies he put into place only half a year ago are now null and void. It strains credibility for the president to ask Republicans to raise taxes when he wouldn’t do so when his team ran the Congress. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Ben Franklin, Bush tax cuts, Congress, debt limit, Democrats, dollar, Economy, election, ethanol subsidy, George W Bush, Obama, Obama Administration, reform, Republicans, spending, tax reform, taxes
Posted in Bad Decisions, Economy, Financial Crisis, Government, Laws, Theory, election, spending, taxes, welfare | No Comments »
June 1st, 2011 by John Feehery
The Democrats called it a sham vote.
Yesterday, the House voted down an increase in the debt ceiling. The President asked for such a vote, and the Speaker complied.
But everyone knew it was a sham and it was.
But sham votes are not unusual in the Congress. Weeks before, the Senate majority leader brought a vote on Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan. He voted against it as did every Democrat. That too was a sham vote.
Of course, almost every vote taken by the Senate this year has been a sham. This has been a sham Senate.
The problem with our Constitution is that it includes the Senate in the first place. The Senate doesn’t do anything and when it does do something, it is usually the wrong thing, but I am a House guy, so I am biased.
The debate on the debt ceiling has been a complete sham. We have to do two things to be fiscally responsible. We have to cut spending and we have to raise taxes. Pretty simple, unless you believe in fairy tales. Read more...
Tags: America, Congress, Democrats, dollar, Economy, GOP, Government, Politics, Republican, Republicans, spending, taxes
Posted in Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, Politics, Promises, Theory, health care, spending, taxes | No Comments »
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