In next year’s election, Team Obama may have no other choice but to campaign against ghosts, figments of the imagination and alternate universes — reality is an opponent they know they will not defeat. White House Spokesman Jay Carney demonstrated that at today’s press conference.
Transcript from Real Clear Politics:
“Well, two things remain uncontestably true. The economy is vastly improved from what it was when Barack Obama was sworn into office as president. We were in economic free-fall. There were predictions that we were headed to the second Great Depression. We were losing up to, over 700,000 jobs a month, we were contracting at greater than 6 percent — our economy was. So, the economy has improved. It has not improved enough.
“Well, there’s no question that we face headwinds, and the president has been very direct about that. And we need to do everything we can, across the front, to ensure we’re doing what we can to spur growth, spur job creation.”
When Obama took office the unemployment rate was 7.2 percent — today, two and a half years later, it’s 9.2 percent. Gas was about $1.79 a gallon when Obama took office. Today it’s $3.68. There are around 13 million more people on food stamps today than there were in January of 2009.
They must be getting into barrys stash because they certainly have been living in their own warped world and not the real world.
Disenchanted, yes, unless they are part of the propaganda to protect their jobs.
I wonder where they all going to do when the white house will be under new AMERICANS ELECTED who wont go for their lies and RACIST CARD TO DIVIDE THE PEOPLE, THEY AND THEIR MEDIA, WILL BE SO BORING HAVING LOST THE ONLY THING THEY HAD TO STAY AFLOAT
When Jay Carney says ”the economy is improving,” it is based mostly on the fact that businesses have forced employees to become incredibly efficient.
Also businesses have tons of cash on the sidelines and look what they do with that cash:
Mergers and acquisitions.
Neither of those hire anybody, many of them cause people to lose their jobs.
Buying improved machinery.
You don’t have to train a new machine.
It won’t need vacation pay, sick leave, medical coverage or even a break room.
Paying down debts.
Again good for the bottom line, but no one gets hired.
Hiring (HIRING) legal experts.
Yup, the big group to improve their employment.
As Obama has imposed more and more regulations and restriction, tax complications and punitive burdens, employers are putting more and more lawmen/tax specialists on retainer.
So, Carney can honestly say there has been improvement (using the term ”vastly” makes me wonder which indicators he could point to ) in that our GPD is up a bit over the 0.14% it was up in Feb 2011 from the start of the recession.
I mean, the ”recession” is over based on the technical indicators.
http://blog.american.com/2011/02/gains-in-productivity-result-in-record-output/
I could hope and pray that Obama, thinking he has “fixed” the economy takes his boot off the neck of business.
@Nan G:
This is something that the non-business types in general, and in particular, the non-industry knowledgeable types, know nothing about. Earlier this week, one of our liberal “friends” posted a link and comments regarding the profits of the corporate world compared to those in the bottom 50%, or something like that. He also posted an opinion piece on the massive cash amount that businesses were sitting on, while no one was really hiring, and related it to corporate “greed”.
The fact is that many businesses, especially in the industrial sector, are seeing this as a great time to be investing in capital improvements. With Obamacare already passed, and many businesses wary and worried on how it will affect their workforce, and with all the talk of tax increases by Obama and the Democrat leadership, they see any investment in their employees as a gamble at this point. Wages and salaries for businesses make up the largest portion of most companies budgets, and for all the uncertainty present in future costs related to that part of their budget, they are hesitant to spend anything in that area.
Hence, the directing of profits into such capital improvements as new equipment, or improvements to their facilities instead, as these are known costs, now and in the future, with little or no uncertainty about them.
Also, many companies have learned to make do with fewer employees to supply the demand for their product and services, and most likely won’t hire anyone, even if all the uncertainty regarding employee wages and benefits is removed. Businesses, for the most part, learn to become leaner and more efficient during such economic times. If only our governments could do the same.
The mass layoff is making a comeback.
I wonder if Carney considers that a part of his “vast improvement?”
In the last 7 days Cisco, Lockheed Martin and Borders announced a combined 23,000 in job cuts.
There were 41,432 in planned cuts in June in the private sector.
Also state and local governments have cut 142,000 jobs this year.
@johngalt:
Another point about buying the newest equipment.
Most of it is NOT being manufactured here in the USA.
So, those dollars go overseas.
We, for example, had most recently (more than 4 years ago) bought $4 million worth of the newest fast color printing equipment.
We bought from an Israeli company.
When there is a need to work on that equipment an Israeli tech person flies in.
Sometimes he does rounds while in the US and we are included for nearly free.
Good thing their corporate jets are owned in Israel, huh!
I live quite near the Ports of Long Beach/Los Angeles.
I often see barges filled to overflowing with America’s scrap metals heading to smelters in Indonesia, Malaysia and China.
Later, the metal will be used to make things we import.
WHY?
Our environmental regulations are so restrictive we cannot set up a smelter for scrap in the US.
@Nan G:
Borders Books, which includes Waldenbooks, is closing permanently.
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/02/16/is-borders-closing-a-store-near-you-heres-the-full-list/
That removes one new bookstore from the three we have in the town I live in. And since the Barnes and Noble caters more to the college part of the town, with fully one half devoted to textbooks, and one half of the remaining half devoted to the “smoothie bar and coffee shop” along with the college apparel section, that only leaves a very small section of new books(the local walmart book and magazine section is nearly as big). So, I have only ONE actual bookstore to go to anymore, but thankfully, it is my favorite one anyway.
But as Carney says, the economy is VASTLY improved since Obama took office, so maybe I’m just crying over spilt milk.
@Nan G:
It’s funny that you brought that up. I had a discussion with my dad the other week about Domestic vs. Import vehicles, and how much of each make shuffled money back into the US economy. I never mentioned the steel aspect, as I believe my dad would have blown a gasket if I told him that most of the steel in his two new GM vehicles came from China.
China buys our scrap metal on the cheap, combines it with newly smelted metal and then sells it back to our steel companies at premium prices. Much of this is inferior steel, of much lower quality than our own, domestic steel.
Have any of the mainstream media picked up on this particular quote by Jay Carney?
No?
Gee, why am I surprised they are trying to bury it for him?
Anyway, scan to the 20 second mark to see how our economy has vastly improved since 2009, folks.
It will only take 18 seconds of your time.
Note that this is an old video.
The situation is actually worse today than at the end of that video.
Republicans have been insisting that the economy has been growing steadily worse since Obama entered the White House. If they crash the markets and kill the recovery with their debt ceiling strategy, I guess they’ll finally have some undeniable evidence to point to. The only consolation is that they’ll probably have wiped out their own political power and a significant part of their own investments and business profits in the process.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that the U.S. economy has improved vastly since the 2008 crash must be living in an alternate reality–in Limbaughland, Glenn Beckistan, or maybe on Planet Fox.
Higher unemployment. Higher inflation. Higher healthcare costs. Higher health insurance costs. Higher fuel costs. Higher deficits to point the government is going to default. Etc. Etc. The economy is doing a lot better. And once again, “Welcome to Fantasy Island”!
Moody’s recently downgraded Irish government debt to junk.
BUT….
Unlike the USA, Ireland had met all the “quantitative fiscal targets” imposed by the European Union, and the National Treasury Management Agency said that Ireland was sufficiently flush “to cover all its financing requirements until the end of 2013.”
And also unlike the USA, Ireland had embarked on a strict austerity program.
So, IF Moody’s isn’t just an Obama sock puppet, we are heading toward that same cliff.
We are out of cash enough to cover our expenses within the next 30 days.
We are still planning to spend like drunken sailors, too.
Mark Steyn once wrote a book about Europe and demographics. (America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It )
Too many old folks, not enough workers paying taxes.
In the USA it is worse.
We have a new ”tradition” of the professional student.
It is not odd to see many people in their 30’s still on campus as full time students, still living at home.
It is also a new tradition to retire early.
So the USA has a lot of old folks not working.
And the USA has a lot of younger folks not working.
We don’t have a lot of people working and paying taxes.
so how come the borders are still open wide?
Greg must be smoking from Carney’s stash. The economy is clearly not better and you have to be either intoxicated or insane not to have noticed. Both of you need to pay attention to the real numbers, not the fake ones that Turbo-Tax Geitner and Valerie Jerritt are passing off. We are still in a recession/(depression if you look at the actual job numbers,) We are in debt up to our great-great grandchildren’s eyeballs, the creditors are threatening to downgrade our credit rating, and the Obamanation crew want to spend even more. Wages and the job market are worse than stagnate and the price of everything but real estate is going up. When the President isn’t busy campaigning and telling everyone else to ‘deal with it’, then he’s out golfing or partying.
@Greg:
Keep telling yourself that, Greg. Maybe that helps you sleep better at night, knowing that in your fantasy world, the liberal/progressives are going to ride a landslide victory in the 2012 elections. The reality, from my perspective, will be far, far different.
Here is a starting point to cut the Federal budget. If we have any politicians reading this, they can cut & paste it into the next bill that hits the floor of Congress.
Title it the…”Abolition of Useless Federal Agencies”.
Personal Income Tax Division of the IRS
National Endowment for the Arts (Can’t sell your art privately?)
National Wild Horse and Burro Program (Huh?)
Dept. of Education
Dept of Energy
FEMA (a corrupt organization if there ever was one–leave it to charities)
FDIC (a sham program with only a fraction of funds needed to save banks)
Freddy Mac & Fannie Mae (helped cause present economic conditions)
Administration on Aging (AoA)
Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD)
Administration for Native Americans (ANA)
Children’s Bureau (CB)
Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB)
Head Start Bureau (HSB)
Healthy Marriage Initiative (HMI)
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)
Office of Community Services Block Grant (OCS)
Office of Family Assistance (OFA)
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Indian Health Service (IHS)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
Office of Minority Health (OMH)
Program Support Center (PSC)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin.(SAMHSA)
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT)
Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI)
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB)
Employment Standards Administration (ESA)
The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)
Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP)
Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
Women’s Bureau (WB)
Job Corps
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
Internet Access and Training Program
Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Bureau of Human Resources
Bureau of Information Resource Management
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
Bureau of International Organization Affairs
Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation
Bureau of Legislative Affairs
Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs
Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Bureau of Public Affairs
Bureau of Resource Management
Bureau of South Asian Affairs
Bureau of Verification, Compliance, and Implementation
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
Counterterrorism Office (which produces the Patterns of Global Terrorism report)
National Foreign Affairs Training Center (former Foreign Service Institute)
Office of International Information Programs
Office of the Legal Adviser
Office of Management Policy
Office of Protocol
Office of the Science and Technology Adviser
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Office of War Crimes Issues (They blew the Bush war crimes)
Car Allowance Rebate System (Cash for Clunkers)
Cash for Appliances Program
Bureau of the Public Debt
Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI)
FHA
HUD
INDEPENDENT AGENCIES Of the U.S. GOVERNMENT;
National health and insurance system
African Development Foundation
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)
Agency for International Development (USAID)
American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC)
Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)
U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC)
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (EVIL WAR-MONGERS)
US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR)
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE)
Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)
Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA)
Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC)
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
Export-Import Bank of the United States (ExIm)
Farm Credit Administration (FCA)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Federal Maritime Commission
Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission (FMSHRC)
Federal Reserve System (a pseudo government, semi-private organization)
Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States (FCSC)
General Services Administration (GSA)
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
Inter-American Foundation (IAF)
International Trade Commission (ITC)
Learn and Serve America (LSA)
National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC)
National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
National Ice Center (NIC)
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) (NRPC)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
National Transportation Research Center (NTRC)
Office of Government Ethics (OGE)(LOT OF GOOD THEY DO)
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
Selective Service System (SSS)
Senior Corps
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC)
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
United States Trade and Development Agency (TDA)
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS;
Financial crisis inquiry commission
Administrative Committee of the Federal Register
American Battle Monuments Commission
Appalachian Regional Commission
Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board)
Arctic Research Commission
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Interagency Coordinating Committee
Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation
Broadcasting Board of Governors
Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
Chief Acquisition Officers Council
Chief Financial Officers Council
Chief Human Capital Officers Council
Chief Information Officers Council
Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee
Commission of Fine Arts
Commission on International Religious Freedom
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission)
Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States
Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction
Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled
Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements
Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States
Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Delaware River Basin Commission
Denali Commission
Endangered Species Committee
Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board
Federal Advisory Committees
Federal Executive Boards
Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
Federal Financing Bank
Federal Geographic Data Committee
Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (GOTTA LOVE THAT ONE!)
Federal Interagency Committee on Education
Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy
Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer
Federal Library and Information Center Committee
Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation
Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor Commission
Indian Arts and Crafts Board
Interagency Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group
Interagency Council on Homelessness
Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin
J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board
James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
Japan-United States Friendship Commission
Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries
Joint Fire Science Program
Marine Mammal Commission
Migratory Bird Conservation Commission
Millennium Challenge Corporation
Mississippi River Commission
Morris K. Udall Foundation: Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy
National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare
National Indian Gaming Commission
National Park Foundation
Northwest Power Planning Council
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Presidio Trust
Regulatory Information Service Center
Social Security Advisory Board
Susquehanna River Basin Commission
Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Veterans Day National Committee
Vietnam Educational Foundation
White House Commission on Presidential Scholars – “Presidential Scholars Program”
White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance
This list does not include the unconstitutioal power of the UN and the more than 500 billin a year it costs the U S to belong nor does it include the money we give groups like the ACLU and ACORN.
Keyser Soze, hi,
with all those agencys out they would be able to lower the DEBT CEILING,
INSTEAD OF RAISE IT,
THANK YOU FOR THAT , NO WONDER THEY LOOK LIKE THEY’RE
ALWAYS CONFUSED, WHEN THEY TALK IN PUBLIC,
I can see MR CAIN USE THE HERMANATOR CHOP KNIFE ON THOSE AGENCYS,
BYE