CNN Politics.com
By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNNSAN DIEGO, California (CNN) — Welcome to March Madness on the Potomac.
Many Americans are so emotionally invested in the Obama presidency that they consider it too historic to fail.
They won’t tolerate any criticism of the president or his administration, finding it easier to simply attack critics. And whatever goes wrong that they can’t defend or deflect, they just blame on George W. Bush.
But to many of the rest of us, it’s clear that President Obama is flunking economics. He is trying to do too much at once, and so he is not doing any of it well. He vows to cut the federal deficit while proposing an avalanche of new spending that will — says the Congressional Budget Office — increase it by as much as $9.3 trillion over the next decade.
Here’s the really bad news, though. No matter what else goes awry, Obama’s strong suits are supposed to be communications and marketing. Yet, this week we learned that this isn’t the case when he has to communicate and market his message on economics.
It doesn’t help matters much that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner seems too small for his chair. When he needs to inspire confidence, Geithner does the opposite. Whenever he speaks and comes up short on specifics, the Dow plummets. And when that happens, the Obama supporters don’t care and insist that Wall Street is part of the problem and thus can’t recognize the solution.
This week, after learning of the Treasury Department’s plan to help banks unload so-called toxic assets, the market bounced back a bit. And now the Obama supporters are singing a different tune.
But here’s the big question: When Wall Street smiles on a government bailout, is it a good or bad thing for average Americans? It depends on how much is being given away and who has to pay the bill.
This much is indisputable: The administration’s economic plan is so sweeping, and our financial situation so precarious, that the administration needs nothing less than a master salesman for its economic agenda. Clearly, Geithner isn’t up to the job. The sooner he steps aside, the better it will be for the administration.
America is fortunate to have an alert, knowledgeable and country loving leader who is willing and able to make the tough choices needed to bring America out of a hole that took twenty-four years to dig.
The Republican’s watch has produced two economic meltdowns. That makes it two for the Republicans and none for the Democrats. One would likely exercise caution before accepting economic “advice” from a Republican source.
The “economic engine”, that drives the Republican’s economic beliefs seems to promote tax relief for the wealthy as fuel for that engine. Under that idea, the government will have done its duty by serving as a catalyst for the activity that will make America’s economy “whole” again. Understand? This concept has never worked in practice even though the Republican neocons have had multiple opportunities to make it work.
How well did the neocons manage America’s money?
Lip-service was given to the concept of frugal spending by a federal government(neocons). But reality showed a huge love for wars that cost a ton of a nation’s resources – lives and dollars.
The neocons seems to be addicted to wars. Be the war in South America, the Middle East or next door to Russia – the neocons were interested. America balked in funding the South America venture but the latter-day neocons ramped up fear of terrorists to the point where extracting the needed American taxpayer funds was easier. The economics of the neocons was scary!
ECONOMICS 101 – Republican(neocon) style?
America would not need to spend mightily if somehow it could RECOVER the bulk of the funds spent/misspent/wasted by the neocons. When oversight, of neocon spending was attempted – a high ranking member of the Bush team cried “foul” and admonished against “MICRO-MANAGING” Bush team activities. But then…
How could the below condition exist?
BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions
By Jane Corbin
BBC News
A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.
The BBC’s Panorama programme has used US and Iraqi government sources to research how much some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding. …
A neighbor of Russia(Georgia) got into a fight with Russia. And who showed up in Russia’s sphere of influence but a member of the Bush team. The Bush team member showed up with a promise of American taxpayer dollars as loans(gifts?) for Georgia.
America’s economy is not in the TULIPS. There is no point in trying to “tip-toe”. And voodoo economics is not an option as it causes problems rather than fixes problems.
America’s economy is in a hole that the neocons were digging for close to twenty four years. Perhaps with IN-DENIAL at work they never realized they were in a deep hole so never exercised the option to “stop digging”.
Again, economics is NOT an exact science – it is unwise to treat it that way. It would be curious to hear of a “best practices” in the field of solving economic problems.
No two American Presidents have to approach economic problems the same way. Ex-President George H.W. Bush’s economic strategy was different from his son’s , Ex-President George W. Bush. And President Barack Obama’s economic problems(upon assuming office) is WAY more serious than any President has assumed since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
But, of course, neocons and their supporters have a right to disagree with the current approach being used to stave off sudden death for American type capitalism. We have already heard, “ I hope he fails” and now we hear that Obama is not following the correct economic steps – whatever they are.
