It leads many on the left, including me, to wonder if the administration's economic agenda is askew.

It's far askew. Are we going to spend the next three years doing the "Is he or isn't he?" kabuki, or are we going to respond?

God, what a breath of fresh air Obama is. I almost forgot what it was like to have a real, breathing, thinking president.

The "is he or isn't he" stuff is mostly created by the amplified press recording moanings and groanings from pundits who simply cannot listen. I constantly hear pundits and reporters telling us what the President thinks, without having any sound bites you know, from the man himself. And if he does say something, they rush in to tell us what he REALLY means, which of course isn't what he said.

It is enough to drive one crazy.

Deepak Chopra wise words on Pres. Obama's: Call to Arms:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/how-to-make-peace-with-ob_b_377483.html

And for those of us who know how to use positive thought or the light, we Must, use our thoughtforms and/or light of love to radiate peace and love into the world, Daily! This will do much to uplift the atmosphere in the world and seal the door where evil dwells. I belive that if peaceful loving people all around the world use their God-given light and energy that soon the Twin Wars intitiated by the fall of the Twin Towers will soon come to an end, but we must work, not in a vengeful way but with love and light. Love heals and unites, fear separates and divides, therefore, let us work with love.

This will be more good news then!
This new Rasmussen Reports poll is going to encourage Republicans who are already running on a 2010 promise to cancel whatever stimulus spending they can.

The survey found 62 percent of voters say tax cuts will create jobs and fight unemployment. Only 21 percent say spending can do that. This cuts against the long-standing economic theories that have guided the White House and Democrats since the beginning of the Obama administration. More good news for Republicans; 51 percent believe canceling the rest of the stimulus money would create more jobs, and only 32 percent — rather less than the Democrats’ base vote — want to keep spending it

It doesn't matter. The far-left has thrown themselves across the bed, wailing at perceived slights like a bunch of god-damned 14-year-old girls who didn't make the cheerleading squad. They have no fucking idea how the game is played, they just know that if they don't get everything they want plus a pony, Obama is a liar and a motherfucker and they regret casting their pure and well intentioned vote for the sonofabitch.

We've got a long-term structural deficit that is primarily being driven by health care costs and our long-term entitlement programs. All right, so that's the base line.

No mention of the costs of the military?? Are they not structural? My understanding is that current military spending accounts for 36% of federal spending, while entitlements or "human resources" only amount to 30%. And if you include costs of past military, military is 54%.

I wonder why that right-wing "teleprompter" meme never really took off.

100% of the Rasmussen Poll shows that the first thing we need to increase spending on is economic education.

Credible studies within the past week have shown the public has it exactly backwards in terms of what form of government intervention provides more bang for the buck in job creation and economic stimulus. Direct spending beats tax breaks by a mile.

America: where rightwing political rhetoric beats objective facts hands down. Are we really still capable of self-governance?

Obama - We've got a long-term structural deficit that is primarily being driven by health care costs and our long-term entitlement programs.

Yup. No mention of off-the budget spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, either.

Every thin dime of tax breaks in the last 30 years has been covered by the surplus in the Social Security funds. So take breaks for the wealthy, and then talk of gutting entitlements.

The parallels between this and companies that give lavish bonuses to executives while underfunding the workers' pension plans is obvious.

Zeitgeist,
I'm frequent advocate for Macro 101 in every HS. However, we must not forget, the nutjobs have counters for that as well-it's "Keynesian" economics. Keynesian as in Communist. Hell, these morons have simply embraced an alternative reality called "Supply-Side" economics. Does not matter that components of "Supply-Side" are demonstrably wrong (or so distorted from context that they may as well be wrong). After all as one right wing dope I occasionally talk with "your crazy, I get my information from credible sources with money on the line- The Wall Street Journal!"
Don't you know, Roosevelt caused the depression!
I think we just need to have more kids then them and outlast 'em. Although we ought to at least give them a chance at eco knowledge in HS.

I may sound like a lefty 14 year old drama queen but at least I know my history Ms. "Realist". The realism is that surging troops into Afghanistan is a mistake that's been made over and over and over again.... ..... .....
A BIG make or break mistake for Mr. Obama. Maybe it will get him re-elected, maybe it's a super way to waste lives, resources and our "honor" as a nation? (You just have to forget about rendition and Xe and the CIA to feel the "honor"). History is very real, Afghanistan is guerilla paradise and you are a generalist idiot calling other people unreasonable while you should be recalling the lessons of the past.

Where did I mention Afghanistan? I didn't. Nice projection tho, and points for recognizing yourself, I guess.

The thing that's troublesome about his comments are:

1. No mention of defense spending so high it's not ridiculous -- it's ricockulous.

2. No mention of how "entitlement" programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security could be easily fixed by raising the max income ceiling from $90K to $250K. Doing so would shore up those for more than a century.

3. No mention of the lost revenue (trillions of dollars worth) due to repeated tax cuts for the wealthy pushed by the GOP. The rich have seen their bills cut in half, thus pushing more of the burden onto the middle class, all while hording insane amounts of wealth (the top one-half of one percent's income has increased by 1700% since 1980; the rest of us just 24%).

You do something about those three right there, add a WPA-style jobs bill on top of it and pass health reform, and things will drastically improve.

Thanks a lot for the very nice post. I like to know about political issues. I am passionate about that. Just continue writing this kind of post. I will be your loyal reader. Thanks again.

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