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Posts Tagged ‘Economy’

How much longer will Obama continue to poll higher?

by Phantom Ace ( 8 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Economy, Polls, Special Report, unemployment at July 18th, 2011 - 8:47 pm

There is a huge disconnect in Barack Hussein Obama’s overall approval ratings and his handling of the economy. He averages 8 points better than what people thing of his economic polices. As I have written, this is because many people bought into the Obama as redeemer lie. They refuse to give up on Obama. Clearly he has some hold on a large segment of the people.

ANALYSIS By AMY WALTER (@amyewalter):  Although President Obama’s job approval rating of 48 percent (according to Pollster.com average) isn’t exactly stellar, it is remarkably high given the level of economic pessimism and despair among American electorate.

The economy is the most important issue for most Americans, yet few Americans feel very good about it and most don’t approve of the way President Obama’s dealing with it.

The most recent Quinnipiac poll found that just 38 percent of Americans approved of the job the president was doing on the economy and just 27 percent were “satisfied” with the direction of the country. Polling done by ABC News/Washington Post and CBS/New York Times in June found similar results on both counts.

Even so, President Obama’s job approval in the Quinnipiac Poll was 47 percent, a full nine points higher than the 38 percent who thought he was doing a good job on the economy. In the ABC /Washington Post poll, his overall approval rating was seven points higher than his approval rating on the economy. In the CBS/New York Times poll, the gap between his overall approval rating and his handling of the economy was 8 points.

Obama’s job approval ratings defy political gravity. The only question now, is if they can do so for much longer.

Gallup and Rasmussen have his approval rating in the mid 40’s, despite economic approval ratings that are lower. This is why The GOP should hammer Obama and make him lose his cool more. The mystique of Obama the divine needs to be destroyed. He needs to be made into a normal politician. Once this occurs, his approval ratings will collapse. Until then, this disconnect about Obama will continue.

 

 

Caturday: Feral Cats Wrongfully Blamed for Globull Warming

by 1389AD ( 172 Comments › )
Filed under Caturday, Climate, Economy, Energy, Environmentalism, Music, Open thread at July 16th, 2011 - 5:00 pm

The Blaze: Cats, not cars, cause…climate change?

(h/t: Blazing Cat Fur)

5 kittens
Well, you can save your money and forget about buying that Prius. Because apparently cats, not cars, cause “climate change.” That’s the latest according to some research studies…

My comments refuting that nonsense are here.

Fat Cats to Obama: Stop Comparing Us To Bankers

(h/t: yenta-fada)

Can’t Hug Every Cat – Autotune Remix Video

(h/t: John Difool)
This is a musical paean to cats, performed in the J-pop (ジェイポップ jeipoppu) electronic dance music style.

Big Cats Obsess over Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men


Democrats ‘Negotiate’ to Destroy the US Economy

by 1389AD ( 4 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Breaking News, Democratic Party, Economy, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Misery Index, Republican Party, Socialism, Special Report, Tranzis, unemployment at July 13th, 2011 - 6:00 pm

BOHICA? Not this time around!

We must DEMAND that the GOP fight back!

Destroying the US economy, and destroying the livelihood – and ruining the lives – of non-Muslims in America and elsewhere in the world economy, is part of the agenda of the long-standing tranzi-progressive/jihadi axis. It opens the way to foreign economic and political domination, and it hampers our ability to resist the worldwide jihad.

Let The Professionals Do It (To You, One More Time)

Gates of Vienna – reprinted with permission

The Heritage Foundation has a few things to say about our mind-bending tax burden: [Emphases throughout this post are mine — D]

While Democrats want tax increases on the table in debt negotiations, Republicans have reiterated their “no tax-hike” stance — a position they reiterated following… [the latest] unemployment report that revealed only a measly 18,000 jobs were created last month.

In reality, 18K jobs in an economy the size of America’s is so horrifically minuscule that if President Obama truly understood the ramifications of these numbers, he’d crawl under his desk until someone came to take him away. 18,000 jobs = EPIC FAIL by even a statist’s definition.

As the Baron said over coffee, the mistake the Republicans made this past week was in even considering “negotiating” with the Dems. Democrats don’t “do” good-faith negotiation; that attitude is a top-down problem, starting in the Oval Office and sifting finally onto the heads of us regular folks. Obama thinks we shouldn’t be worrying about things like the debt. In the short video below the fold, O tells us to go out and live our ordinary lives and let the professionals take care of the Debt. In other words, please don’t notice that he has no idea how to fix this mess. But he doesn’t need to know; he’s the One We Were waiting For. He’s Godot.

HF continues:

If that [the 18K jobs increase] isn’t enough reason to keep Democrats from proposing tax increases, perhaps the ambiguity of our nation’s economic future is.Americans are set to face the highest tax burden in history. Families will be hit by unprecedented taxation levels by 2020 without the extension of current tax rates. This means more economic stagnation and less prosperity.

What part of Obama’s “I won” rulebook do Republicans not understand? Present-day Dems do not negotiate, they strong arm, smear and threaten. (Think of the nomenklatura minus assassinations.)

HF presents the evidence from the American Legislative Exchange Council, though the average American hardly needs persuading:
The Tax Burden
[Blogger image sizes are limited. To see a larger version of the chart go here].

In that same post, the Heritage Foundation gives the credit to ALEC:

The American Legislative Exchange Council has found that higher taxes, new spending, and more debt will deepen the financial crisis. If tax hikes are included in any sort of deal, it is only a matter of time before workers, employers and the entire nation are burdened by more than they can handle.

The Debt isn’t rocket science, but our president says Americans shouldn’t worry their cute li’l heads about it. This subject is for professional politicians only:

Obama: ‘Professional Politicians’ Understand Debt Crisis Better Than ‘The Public’

Hubris much?

[Thanks to CNS for the video]

The man’s evasions, condescension (not to mention his high-fivin’shuckin’ and jivin’) continue to astound. In reality, he’s clueless about how the free-market system operates. Or rather, what of it he understands, he dislikes. He didn’t make his millions by starting up a business and hiring people. Instead, he learned early on to milk the Government Goat and he thinks y’all should do the same.

The lawyer/blogger at Legal Insurrection perfectly posed our Feckless Fearless Leader in his own self-created dilemma. Hard to feel sorry for a man who “done it to his ownself” as they say around here:

The only way for Obama to stimulate the enormous private sector job growth needed to ensure Obama’s reelection is for Obama to announce he is not running for reelection, which would unleash a wave of investment and economic activity not seen since the Great Depression.

This ginormous problem is “Obama’s Catch 2012” and it should catch on… so to speak. If the Republicans don’t send that one viral, then they’re even more clueless than we’ve been led to believe by watching their naïve behavior in trying to negotiate with Democrats. They’ve now set themselves up by the mere act of sitting down with the Treachery Team: now if they refuse to raise taxes the Dems will say Republicans don’t care about The Debt. However, if they agree to the Dems’ terms for upping the tax rate, their voters back home will can ’em.

Will someone please tell the Republicans they won? According to our President, victory means you never have to consult with the losing side. In the other ear, mention the sad fact that the Losers are determined to take us all down with them.


Hat tip for video: Family Security Matters


Walter Williams’ PBS Documentary, “Good Intentions.”

by Flyovercountry ( 100 Comments › )
Filed under Academia, Economy, History, Politics, Socialism, unemployment at July 7th, 2011 - 2:30 pm

Walter Williams today is the head of the Economics Department at George Mason University.  Here we are 29 years later, and the day’s problems and answers remain the same.  As a society we demand a basket of free goodies from the public largess.  When the universal truth of the broken window fallacy smacks us in the face, those who sold us on the basket of free goodies offer a government program which somewhat offers to mitigate the results of the first disastrous governmental intervention into the free market system.  The issue is demagogued  and spun to make those advocating the reversal out to be cold heartless animals throwing grandma off of the proverbial cliff.    

Walter Williams’ PBS documentary Good Intentions based on his book, The State Against Blacks (1982). The documentary was very controversial at the time it was released and led to many animosities and even threats of murder.
In Good Intentions, Dr. Williams examines the failure of the war on poverty and the devastating effect of well meaning government policies on blacks asserting that the state harms people in the U.S. more than it helps them. He shows how government anti-poverty programs have often locked people into poverty making the points that:
– being forced to attend 3rd rate public schools leave students unprepared for working life – minimum wages prevent young people from obtaining jobs at an early age – licensing and labor laws have had the effect of restricting entrance of blacks into the skilled trades and unions – the welfare system creates perverse incentives for the poor to make bad choices they otherwise would not
Dr. Williams presents the following solutions to these problems:
Failing Public Schools – Give parents greater control over their children’s education by setting up a tuition tax credit or voucher system to broaden competition in turn revitalizing both public and non-public schools
Minimum Wages – Remove the minimum wage from youngsters to give more young people the chance to learn the world of work at an early age instead spending their free time idle an possibly falling into the habits of the street
Restrictive Labor Laws, Jobs Programs – Eliminate government roadblocks that prevent new entrepreneurs from starting their own business
Welfare Programs – Enact a compassionate welfare system such as a negative income tax which would remove dependency and dis-incentives for the poor to get themselves out of poverty
Scholars interviewed in the documentary include Donald Eberle, Charles Murray, and George Gilder.

In watching Dr. Williams’ documentary from 30 years ago, something struck me.  We, here in America often debate the issues of our day as if we live in a vacuum.  We stand today at a crossroads, just like we have many times in our history.  We can look to the big government solutions to our current crisis, or we can look to allowing the free markets to do this for us.  When I say we do not live in a vacuum, what I meant is that we have tried both approaches before.  One approach has never worked, and in fact always succeeded at making the problems worse.  One approach has worked every time it has been tried.  I am used to being called a, (insert your insult here,) for advocating the latter path.  At some point however, I would just like to point out that while the liberal heart is undoubtedly in the right place, when your course of action invariably leads to the exact results you are complaining about, it becomes your own fault personally for refusing to try something else.  Dr. Williams was vilified mercilessly for this documentary.  No matter what names he was called, it does not detract from the fact that he was right.  Walter Williams writes a weekly column, I find them reprinted at Investor’s Business Daily.

Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.