Obama has spent over a year reaching out to the GOP and all he's gotten has been bitten.

Quote :

"Obama Steps Up Confrontation White House Seeks to Rally Supporters With Aggressive Tone Against Opponents President Barack Obama, after a year of fitfully searching for compromise, is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters and possibly muscle in some Republican support in Congress. On Thursday, the president challenged Republicans who planned to campaign on repealing his health-care bill with, "Go for it." Two days later, he made 15 senior appointments without Senate consent, including a union lawyer whose nomination had been blocked by a filibuster. President Obama is taking a more aggressive tack with his Republican adversaries, hoping to energize Democratic voters and possibly muscle in some Republican support in Congress, Jonathan Weisman reports. At a bill-signing event Tuesday, he is set to laud passage of higher-education legislation that was approved despite Republican objections through a parliamentary maneuver that neutralized the party's filibuster threat. On Thursday, Mr. Obama will be in Maine, home state of two moderate Republican senators who opposed his health-care plan, to promote the health law. Even his surprise trip to Afghanistan on Sunday mobilized the perks of the presidency to marshal public opinion, as pictures were beamed home of Mr. Obama mobbed by U.S. troops. A senior Democratic official said the push was a textbook case of taking advantage of political momentum as the campaign season begins. Republicans are "on the defensive," the official said, "and as long as they're not cooperating, we ought to keep them there.""

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404575152110331938210.html

Take that!

3/30/2010 8:54:06 PM

ibtl

yes, he's spent so much time reaching out to them by holding several meetings on major policy issues with only democrats. He's spent so much time reaching out to them by letting his buddies hold major meetings behind closed and locked doors

3/30/2010 8:56:17 PM

Please enlighten me with evidence of "closed doors".

3/30/2010 9:00:52 PM

3/30/2010 9:06:29 PM

is he well-endowed?

3/30/2010 9:07:32 PM

I already posted this in the credibility thread. Yeah, I know. Democrats think this is "political courage." What it really proves is that Obama is just another politician. He's not a breath of fresh air. He's not bringing change to Washington. He's Bush #2. We're borrowing our way to destruction, with no end in sight.

3/30/2010 9:08:02 PM

Went from a year of calling him a do-nothing president, and some are now calling him a do-too-much president. CPAC went wild when they heard speakers like Dick Cheney & Glenn Beck talking about gumming up the works and especially for whoever it was that talked about the snow in Washington.

It all depends on your point of view as to whether or not he's doing the right things, and that is a fair argument to have, but I am happy to see the criticisms being over action rather than inaction.

3/30/2010 9:30:01 PM

^ me too, im glad we fight about being in Iraq rather than not going

3/30/2010 9:32:26 PM

Quote :

"Please enlighten me with evidence of "closed doors"."

from HuffPo, no less... google is really hard, dude...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/27/house-dems-to-hold-five-h_n_245727.html

Quote :

"There's no typo on the bulletin board. House Democrats plan to huddle behind closed doors to go over health care reform legislation section by section Monday afternoon and evening."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/17/AR2009101701810.html
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4099804/closed-door-health-care-meeting
http://www.examiner.com/p-462909~JW_Sues_HHS_to_Obtain_President_s_Closed_Door_Health_Care_Meeting_Docs.html

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Obama+says+closed-door+meetings+on+health+care+were+a+mistake&articleId=b22be0dc-aaf1-40dc-9cd7-72b5a4afe9b4
I like the last one...

3/30/2010 9:35:05 PM

I never called him a do-nothing president. I came close, by thanking goodness he was seeming to be an accomplish nothing president, but he sure has proved me wrong. Up next, card-check, the surest way to turn this Great Recession in an honest to god Great Depression II.

3/30/2010 9:35:19 PM

Yeah, "do nothing" would have been a good thing in this instance. He's doing a lot, and pretty much none of it is good. If he actually gets us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, that'll be great, but I'm still skeptical.

3/30/2010 9:44:57 PM

Stock market seems to be going up since Bush left and Obama arrived.

3/30/2010 9:56:00 PM

only because it had nowhere else to go, durrr. Of course, we could note how the stock market always took a big loss every time Obama opened his big, fat mouth last year about the banks...

3/30/2010 9:57:51 PM

Quote :

"Stock market seems to be going up since Bush left and Obama arrived."

Yeah man, the stock market is a great indicator of a strong economy.

3/30/2010 10:02:07 PM

Employment numbers will be coming out soon.

3/30/2010 10:05:03 PM

Quote :

"Up next, card-check, the surest way to turn this Great Recession in an honest to god Great Depression II."

democrats had all but dropped card check last i heard.

3/30/2010 11:21:47 PM

^ good thing too

3/30/2010 11:24:44 PM

^^^Employment numbers will probably get a temporary boost due to census jobs. They still suck however. We won't see the ramifications of what Obama has done to our deficit until he is out of office most likely. No point in judging the big overall picture now. That's just like saying I borrowed a hell of a ton of money and bought a brand new house, life must be good. Oh wait, I have to pay that back sometime, shit, I didn't think about that.

3/30/2010 11:31:27 PM

yes. obama is the major cause of the deficit.

3/30/2010 11:54:30 PM

Looks like Reagan and Bush were the presidents who set the precedent for massive deficit spending, Clinton bucked this trend, Bush re-continued it, and Obama, so far, has also continued it.

So since presidents started ignoring the debt, we've had the 3 republican presidents work very hard to increase it, 1 democratic president decreased it, and 1 democratic president who seems to be on track to increasing it (but this could change), yet it's the DEMOCRATS to blame... makes a lot of sense...

3/31/2010 12:01:02 AM

Quote :

"Yeah man, the stock market is a great indicator of a strong economy."

It's a great indicator of how the rich are doing, which is great, since they are the backbone of the economy.

3/31/2010 12:11:33 AM

^^I'm not going to challenge you on that. "Mainstream republicanism" is very different than what I advocate. We can't have these artificial budgets. I didn't support the deficit spending when Bush was doing it. I recognize that Clinton ran a surplus at one point. Point is, we need to figure out a way to run a surplus now. Nearly 2 trillion deficits per year are not going to work, unless you're trying to live in a third world country.

^Not even. There are plenty of rich people that aren't participating in the U.S. stock market. The real growth is happening in emerging Asian markets and commodities. I wouldn't put a dime in the Dow Jones. It's also dollar denominated assets, which are doomed to crash at this point.

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 12:16 AM. Reason : ]

3/31/2010 12:14:23 AM

Quote :

"I recognize that Clinton ran a surplus at one point. Point is, we need to figure out a way to run a surplus now."

well Clinton ran a surplus in his last year of office, so give the man some room.

Quote :

"I wouldn't put a dime in the Dow Jones."

Then you're a moron. I'm making about 2k/month right now in the stock market.

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 12:53 AM. Reason : ]

3/31/2010 12:49:27 AM

You could be making a lot more money in non-American markets. Maybe you should look into it.

Oh, and watch for that crash. Not that you'll see it coming, since Obama is the savior of the economy and all.

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 1:07 AM. Reason : ]

3/31/2010 1:06:18 AM

Quote :

"The chart above compares the President’s budget deficit projections to the Congressional Budget Office’s budget deficit projections under current law. In other words, the policy changes embodied in President Obama’s 2011 Budget puts our country $2.5 trillion deeper in debt by 2020 than it other wise would be if current law were left unchanged."

Quote :

"http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/05/past-deficits-vs-obamas-deficits-in-pictures/"

Also, who cares if other presidents had deficit spending? It does not make it right, and I thought Obama was supposed to be "change we can believe in". I guess the change was more debt .

3/31/2010 8:22:39 AM

that really is the most tired argument ever.

3/31/2010 8:37:08 AM

^Because you have no response

3/31/2010 9:10:37 AM

Quote :

"Employment numbers will be coming out soon."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. private employers shed 23,000 jobs in March, missing expectations for an increase in jobs although fewer than the adjusted 24,000 jobs lost in February, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

The February fall was originally reported at 20,000.

The median of estimates from 35 economists surveyed by Reuters for the ADP Employer Services report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, was for a rise of 40,000 private-sector jobs last month.

3/31/2010 9:18:50 AM

Of course, the Republicans have been nothing but eager to negotiate.

Sarah Palin at Teaparty rally:

Quote :

"... the Republican Party isn't the party of no -- we're the party of hell no!"

3/31/2010 9:52:14 AM

Quote :

"Looks like Reagan and Bush were the presidents who set the precedent for massive deficit spending, Clinton bucked this trend, Bush re-continued it, and Obama, so far, has also continued it."

Quite true. We had a New Democrat in the white house, and a Newt Gingrich Congress, and they worked a miracle: constrained spending.

But you cannot close your eyes to the whole story. Reagan and Bush both had a Democrat controlled Congress. Which is clearly the cause of their ballooning Deficits: as it wasn't until Bush II got himself a democrat Congress that public debt went from 15% rise in six years to 50% rise in three years.

It is my opinion that Congress matters more to the deficit than the White House does. I don't understand how anyone else can justify a different opinion.

3/31/2010 9:59:10 AM

Because the President is always the gatekeeper on spending and always has to take credit for what happens on his watch? ... With veto power, he has the power ...

3/31/2010 10:10:54 AM

Quote :

"You could be making a lot more money in non-American markets. Maybe you should look into it."

I am internationally diversified, but my large cap domestics are performing the best right now. Either way, you should diversify and balance domestic and international investments.

3/31/2010 5:31:55 PM

Quote :

"Point is, we need to figure out a way to run a surplus now. Nearly 2 trillion deficits per year are not going to work, unless you're trying to live in a third world country. "

historically speaking, a democratic president is more likely to get this done.

Quote :

"It is my opinion that Congress matters more to the deficit than the White House does. I don't understand how anyone else can justify a different opinion. "

haha, im going to give you the benefit of the doubt here, but you’re basically saying you don’t see how anyone can have an opinion different than your opinion

O RLY? Bush 2 had a republican congress, and Reagan himself is held to this day as a stalwart of the mythical fiscal responsibility that republicans always harken back to. No one ever talks about the congress under Clinton, it’s always Reagan-this and Reagan-that.

Times change, so there’s only so much the past can reflect the future, but the right may get their chance at holding congress again, and we’ll see what they do. They’ve already resisted the deficit committee, so i’m thinking they’ll continue to try and put making Obama look bad above their presumed principles.

3/31/2010 8:16:15 PM

I hope, that just like under Clinton, a Republican Congress coupled with a Democrat White House will have beneficial results.

However, I believe that times have changed. The ideology that was transcendent in the 1990s has been replaced by another ideology that is far darker. As such, I suspect that even if Bill Clinton became president, and Newt took control of Congress, the deficits would still be astronomical.

Quote :

"Because the President is always the gatekeeper on spending and always has to take credit for what happens on his watch? ... With veto power, he has the power ..."

Well, if we compared all the deficits run up by all previous presidents, they pale in comparison to what Obama is racking up. As such, if it is the President that determines deficits, then we've got two more years of this.

3/31/2010 8:24:43 PM

^You're right. We need to increase top marginal tax rate to what it was under Eisenhower.

3/31/2010 9:50:15 PM

or we could decrease spending and federal gov't scope to what it was under Eisenhower. I'll take that

3/31/2010 9:53:45 PM

^

... you'd be happy with the debt being 60% of the GDP and a $30 billion dollar deficit?

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 9:57 PM. Reason : ]

3/31/2010 9:57:25 PM

don't try to argue logic w/ burr0. he's like BobDole... wants to build a bridge to yesterday.

3/31/2010 10:00:10 PM

the funny thing is that those numbers are pretty much where Clinton was at in 1997.

so Burro, and presumably his tea-bagger nutbag friends, are big CLinton lovers...?

[Edited on March 31, 2010 at 10:01 PM. Reason : ]

3/31/2010 10:01:03 PM

i'd love only having a $30billion deficit right now, in today's dollars

3/31/2010 10:15:44 PM

This website only has one admitted communist and he's making more money than I am in the stock market. I'd jump out the window if it weren't on the ground floor.

4/1/2010 12:12:16 AM

^I work in the financial industry I've sold out whatever remnants of soul I may have left for that money!

4/1/2010 12:32:12 AM

You don't even think there is such a thing as a soul, so in reality you've traded nothing for $$$.

I don't disapprove, but the irony factor almost balances out the "I'm even poorer than the communist" factor.

4/1/2010 12:36:07 AM

True, but I still struggle with the fact that although I believe I can act in my best interests and still work towards communist goals, I know my life of yuppieism would make marx cry.

4/1/2010 12:51:40 AM

I really hope you are posting after you get married, buy a house, and have kids.

By then you'll be screaming "Drill baby drill!" and demanding that taxes be lowered on the middle (or dare I say upper) class.

4/1/2010 12:54:05 AM

Quote :

"162,000 jobs added in March, most in 3 years"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36146930/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

Suck it.

4/2/2010 5:50:49 PM

pryderi brings the interracial homoeroticism ITT.

4/2/2010 8:47:57 PM

Woot for census jobs and seasonal construction

4/2/2010 11:36:30 PM

4/2/2010 11:46:10 PM

4/3/2010 12:05:22 AM