Barack Obama has a little over a year and a half left in his disastrous and failed presidency, and he is getting more and more whiny , above and beyond his normal whining. And his typical blamestorming and castigation. Here he goes again during the Weekly Address (video here)
Hi, everybody. This week, I spent a couple days in Minneapolis, talking with people about their lives – their concerns, their successes, and their hopes for the future.
Yeah, and hitting up some fundraisers with 1%ers. And by “days”, he means getting there midday Thursday and leaving midday Friday. Cause he cares or something. Let’s get to the meat of the address
But as Rebekah also wrote in her letter, there are still too many middle-class families like hers who do everything right – who work hard and who sacrifice – but can’t seem to get ahead. It feels like the odds are stacked against them. And with just a small change in our priorities, we could fix that.
The problem is, Republicans in Congress keep blocking or voting down almost every serious idea to strengthen the middle class. This year alone, they’ve said no to raising the minimum wage, no to fair pay, no to student loan reform, no to extending unemployment insurance. And rather than invest in education that helps working families get ahead, they actually voted to give another massive tax cut to the wealthiest Americans.
This obstruction keeps the system rigged for those at the top, and rigged against the middle class. And as long as they insist on doing it, I’ll keep taking actions on my own – like the actions I’ve taken already to attract new jobs, lift workers’ wages, and help students pay off their loans. I’ll do my job. And if it makes Republicans in Congress mad that I’m trying to help people out, they can join me, and we’ll do it together.
There’s nothing like being a jerk as a method to get people to work with you, wouldn’t you say? It’s surely the best method, eh? One might have thought Obama would have actually learned something about leadership and management during his 5+ years. Alas, no. Guess what? Republicans were elected to say no. What Obama really wants to do is position himself to act more like a king.
So rather than more tax breaks for millionaires, let’s give more tax breaks to help working families pay for child care or college. Rather than protect tax loopholes that let big corporations set up tax shelters overseas, let’s put people to work rebuilding roads and bridges right here in America. Rather than stack the decks in favor of those who’ve already succeeded, let’s realize that we are stronger as a nation when we offer a fair shot to every American.
Republicans in the House should immediately take advantage of Obama’s words and pass a whole raft of tax breaks that help out the middle class. Gas tax, income tax, payroll taxes, Obamacare taxes, federal fees and levies, small business taxes. And then point out to Obama that the Democrat led Senate mostly refuses to take up any economic bills passed by the House. They would go along with the dozens already passed and sent over that are languishing without a vote.
This also shows that Obama has virtually no new idea. Whining about “tax breaks for millionaires”, despite Obama taking advantage of all those same deductions. And he apparently thinks we’re all blue collar workers who will repave our roads and bridges. Say, whatever happened to all that $100+ billion for infrastructure per the Stimulus, which was above and beyond normal spending?
I’m going to spend some time talking about these very choices in the week ahead. That’s because we know from our history that our economy doesn’t grow from the top-down, it grows from the middle-out. We do better when the middle class does better. That’s the American way. That’s what I believe in. And that’s what I’ll keep fighting for.
It’s like listening to a parrot. A very stupid and limited parrot which refuses to learn any new tricks.
If he really wants to help, perhaps he could work to bring down our energy prices. Gas has averaged well over $3 for most of Obama’s presidency. Our power bills are going up. Our food costs are going up. All thanks to his terrible policies.
Meanwhile, anyone want to bet that Obama plays golf today?
Crossed at Right Wing News.
The Teach typed: “There’s nothing like being a jerk as a method to get people to work with you, wouldn’t you say?”
The ONLY way the far-right Repubs in the House will work with the Dems is if Obama and the Dems do exactly what the extremists want.
“Republicans were elected to say no.” — And they have said no repeatedly, and look where the economy is. Thanks, Tea Party!
[…] Obama Weekly Address: Virtually Out Of Ideas. […]
The extremists are the communists that have infiltrated the democrat party. There is no common ground between Real Americans and the Left. Their policies ALWAYS lead to failure and misery. Trolls who defend owebama should demand additional “stupid” pay because that’s how they appear when covering for this pResident!
Yes J, good thinking. The Dems control the Senate and the Presidency but it’s the Republicans in the House that are the problem. Tell me, why didn’t these brilliant liberals pass the economic legislation they needed when they had a super-majority in Congress? Oh wait, they did, but the “stimulus” didn’t stimulate anything. They even got the income tax increases they wanted. So, to sum up J’s analysis, the Dems got their stimulus, their tax increases, Obamacare and a President who acts like a dictator by enacting many of his pet policies by executive athority, bypassing Congress. But it’s the relatively small number of Tea Partiers in the House, who couldn’t pass or block anything without the support of the other Republican members, who are the problem. J, you just don’t do economics very well, do you?
Damn Republicans. Always demanding that the Democrats and Obama follow the law and the Constitution.
I did catch a bit of the last speech. From what I saw it appeared that Obama was a weak child on a school ground. I don’t think the man has ever understood what it is to be president.
Jeff,
I could win the race for senate in my state if I just had one slogan, that is, I will vote no on any bill put forth except those to reduce the size of the government. That is because the people, not the Republicans, want a return to freedom and less government.
Two-and-a-half years, January 2017. God help us, every one.
H.R. 1406: Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 — Replaces overtime pay with comp time to be allowed at employers discretion
H.R. 2587 (112th): Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act — guts NLRB power
At least 52 House bills to gut the ACA
Several hundred Republican sponsored bills in Statehouses to gut unions and reward employers.
Republican elites work to reward the wealthy and corporate donor classes at the direct expense of the middle and working classes. Most liberals agree that we need to cut taxes on the middle and working classes and raise taxes on the wealthy.
Republicans claim to be anti-tax, but actually they are only anti-tax for the wealthy. St. Reagan saw that Republicans (with some Dem support) could shift Federal tax burden from the wealthy and corporations to the working classes. Your payroll taxes, only on earned income and capped to the FIRST $117,000 of wages, keep creeping up. Mr. Reagan wisely understood that you could collect payroll taxes in surplus of what was needed to support Social Security, and the surplus could be used to offset income tax deficits. Voila! Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations paid for by the working classes and increased federal debt! (Reagan/Bush-1 nearly tripled the national debt.) The bulk of income for the wealthy is not subject to payroll taxes, and the income tax rates on unearned income (e.g., capital gains) is lower than for earned income!
See figs 1 and 2 from http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/revenue.cfm
In 2012, payroll taxes made up 40% of Federal revenues; income taxes made up 42%; corporation taxes have dropped to 9% of federal revenues (Fig 1).
Payroll taxes have expanded to fill the gap created by the continual decrease in revenues from corporate taxes (Fig 2).
Poor j typed: “Oh wait, they did, but the “stimulus†didn’t stimulate anything.” — Compare our trajectory to that of the EU where there was no stimulus at all.
The ARRA was flawed in that it had to satisfy conservatives, including a few Senate Dems, and a few Senate Repubs. The greatest flaw was that it was too, too small – simple arithmetic demonstrated that beforehand – and too short. During a major recession, unemployment payments are the greatest stimulus (and Repubs just shut them off). But the ARRA was better than nothing. A second major flaw was that it relied too much on tax cuts. (To the Repubs credit many wanted even more infrastructure spending than was finally included). The Reagan-Bush1-Bush2 federal debt, coupled with the anti-debt fetishists (elites who fear their cushy tax advantages will be lost) also hurt our efforts to spend what we needed to stimulate demand.
We could have vastly improved employment and economic performance but we lacked the political will to do so.
Mr. Obama lacked the stomach, and Congress the courage to do what was needed. We needed a Manhattan project type stimulus including important long-term infrastructure spending – roads, bridges, energy grid, ports, airports, communications. We needed direct payments to states to keep teachers teaching and policemen and firefighters employed. The House did pass Wall Street regulations without a single Republican vote.
The US gov’t could borrow money at effectively a 0% interest rate to support the huge middle class, putting them back to work until the economy healed. We made a policy choice not to do that.
Perhaps ought to adopt the same tactics the Demorats employ like cghanging the locks on the conference rooms during internal discussions on Obamacare so the GOP could not participate. Its the approved politboro method. As Comrade Obama knows he does not have to respond to the will of the running dogs of wall street, only the one per cent he so slavishly requests alms to further the people’s cause.
Can the Republican Party ever learn the Constitution is the product of evil, dead white men? That the rights and protections contained therein are merely a means to oppress the poor? That is why the works of Marx must be followed for change, hope, equality, just as has been established in the gulags of North Korea where all men are equal.
Forward to the great socialist future. Happiness awaits, just ask any Cubam.
Comrade Jeffry is awarded the Order of Lennin second class. Pravda is proud of the usual Demorat meme that Comrade Obama and his commissars will cut taxes. When have the Demorats ever cut a tax?
Your healthcrae is now a tax. Comrade Obama’s henchmen want a 12 cent a gallon increase in the gasoline tax. More taxes for those who work and more goodies for those who do not. Its the way Stalinists gain power, by stealing from Peter to pay Paul.
In fact that’s the way the mafia works. Its a great country isn’t it? When those who work must be robbed to support those who do not. When Obama depends on his ultra rich crony capitalist friends to insure 600,000 a year jobs for the drooling kin who are usually found locked up in attics. Remember vote for Demorats and you too can be dead broke and get 250,000 a speech.
Because Demorats are for the working man. Stalinists need them to insure that party members live in 10 million dollar houses.
Hope, change, Equality, four legs good, two legs bad!
CK,
You’re nuts even by the loose standards of Teabaggery.
All this talk about communism and Stalinists rather than reason.