Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Opinion

Michael Barone

Obama Pitches Stimulus in Elkhart, Indiana, RV Capital of the World--Why?

February 09, 2009 12:42 PM ET | Michael Barone | Permanent Link | Print

Reader Comments

Obama in Elkhart County

F*CK Obama.....I dont swallow any of his double talk, & just telling people what they wanna hear!! I still feel he doesnt have the experience to be President, & I voted accordingly for MacCain/Palin! He hasnt done anything to improve the situation here in Elkhart County, I know cause I live here in Goshen, Indiana! Well, to all the Wiggers who voted for him.....here's my middle finger to ya! Ron G.

Elkhart RV Solution and Waivers

1) Why not sell or donate some Elkhart, Indiana RVs to the thousands of folks in AUSTRALIA who recently lost their home to bush fires? These poor folks are currently homeles! Give companies who make these RV's, a tax break or subsidy for exporting these trailor homes to places round world where there are homeless refugees. Inatead of constantly venting and blaming eachothers' political parties, because we all know they SHARE the blame; let's look for creative solutions for all.

2)Why not create selective EXPORT WAIVERS as a way of some distributing some badly needed humanity in our world (then maybe Tim Geithner can once again be proud enough of our government to stop calling it "YOUR government".) i.e. Selective export waivers in order to DIRECTLY get some food, shelter, or Caterpillar tractors ( I have no connection to that company) to those starving in Third World countries, even if those countries have some human rights issues. The Politicians have little hesitation to use waivers to try to get tax cheats into political offie, so why not use waivers to do something good. Think Aristotles' Golden Mean/middle road approach, not to mention Golden Rule?

Obama (Running for King of the World)

Yesterday Obama spoke in front of a hand picked town hall audience. As the new President was getting ready to approach the podium a chant from the hand selected crowd began to erupt; Obama -Obama - Obama. Did the man go to Elkhart to run for office? Is this a kickoff for a seven year campaign to run for "King of the World".

This is not about Obama anymore, he now represents the citizens of the USA. Would it not have been more appropriate for these faux citizens of Elkhart to chant something more like USA - USA - USA. Or, more to the point, a chant like: USA - USA - USA -- BAIL US OUT - BAIL US OUT.

Would it not be more productive to ask the president why the US is not seeking to find and drill for more oil and refine more gas? But maybe the people of Elkhart (The RV capital of the world) can wait a few more years and then sell campers with long extention cords attached to windmills.

Obamas Cutting your Throat!!

Why does he tell you he is cutting taxes on the wealthy when you all know a great motor home costs around $700,000.

Well, without that mans money who will buy your motor home?

The man is an empty suit, filling people with the stuff they want to hear but a non-working plan to fix it.

Stop the Madness

The problem is that the right wants to blame the left and the left wants to blame the right. The truth is that there is plenty of blame to go around ON BOTH SIDES.

The Carter/Clinton "everybody deserves a house and banks better lend to them regardless of their financial worth or suffer our wrath" mentality coupled with the Freddie/Fannie/Barney Franks "look the other way, there is no problem here" fiasco while they were inflating their books and underwriting bad mortgages have caused the credit freeze that we face now. Banks won't lend because they've been burned by these policies and they aren't being repaid the money they've lent.

On the other hand, President Bush and the ENTIRE Congress (which BTW to all you libs. was NOT as Republican as you'd like to think it was. Check out the ratios of Repubs/Dems for each Congress -- you'll be surprised. AND the House still had in place the rules that Newt Gingrich had established to give the minority party a significantly stronger voice than their minority status would indicate they should have) did go on a spending spree that is shameful and as a result our deficit is a trillion dollars.

So, blame all around. The problem that I see with President Obama's plan is that he isn't being honest with himself or the nation. Yes, President Bush's administration DID cut taxes. BUT, that is not the only policy it tried. The Bush administration also INCREASED spending (thus the trillion dollar deficit that President Obama is do adept at saying he inherited).

So, let's see here --

The Bush plan:

increased spending + tax cuts = the worst economic crisis since the great depression.

The Obama plan:

increased spending + tax cuts (yes, libs. there are tax cuts in his plan) = a different result?

Sorry, doesn't compute with me.

All the Credit for Our Great Economy Goes to Bush & the GOP

Like W said, Wall Street got drunk and now all boozy Republicans are going through cold-turkey from power, definitely in a state of denial.

Eight years of a knucklehead administration and the sidekick rubber stamp GOP congresses have been vanquished from short-term memory by a serious case of Delirious Tremors.

Blame anybody, everybody but yourselves for chugging a little too much of that Neocon moonshine. I guess folks been walking around in a liquor/meth coma the last eight yrs and don't recognize their flirtations with the GOP have left the economy totally squandered after the wild bender. OD'ing on Plan B now won't wipe away the memory, cuz the mess Bush left us with ain't going anywhere fast. Another round of the wicked hotch you been got bombed on won't sober you.

Lack of diversity

It soulds like Elkhart depended on one industry for much of their employment. That was a bad move. Those jobs won't be coming back just like the auto jobs won't be coming back until the product offered changes.

Since I can remember, I have seen hundreds of RVs just parked doing nothing. It is like the boat industry. People buy them take a few trips and then boats stay in their slips and RVs get parked on a pad.

Again, we have an inventory problem. Should our country encourage RV sales? I see many more negatives than I see positives.

People need to look at their jobs. Are they sustainable? Are they necessary?

Elkhart screwed again

How funny, first Carter and his stupidity screwed the people of Elkhart wih his policies and resulting high gasoline prices; and people who lost their jobs walked away from the homes they couldn't pay for; and now Obama is gonna screw them again and they are too stupid to see it.

I had a chance to work in Elkhart and left it cxause I could see future problems.

Democrats: Stop Re-Writing History

The only clowns that have caused us this economic crisis were those in the Clinton Adminstration de-regulating the banking industry and forcing banks to give loans to people who don't qualify (if not, they would get fined). Then they put Bozo, Barney Franks, in charge.

I failed to see how spending $46M on Condoms help stimulate the economy, or giving 1M to Amtrak helps either. Most of the construction jobs aren't ready to break ground until 2011 or 2012. How does that help anyone now?

Removing the payroll tax or reducing the 15% (7.5% employee, 7.5% employer) currently charged against your payroll, makes more sense. You would have more money at every paycheck and the employer would have more money to hire another body. That helps everyone, whether you are poor, middle class or rich. Doesn't matter.

Libs like Pablo of WA wakeup

It is so easy to have libs blame the entire economic crash on the republicans. I have to think that this is because they don't have the mental capabilities to be able to learn the true reason for this crisis. That the only place they get their information would be from NBC nightly news. Pablo, do you have a clue as to why the banks are having problems? Could it possibly be that the democrats had to shove the "everyone deserves to own their own home" legislation down every citizens throat. And now people who shouldn't have ever been approved to have a loan can't and won't pay that money back. Personal responsiblity that is the difference that separates small minded libs and republicans. You might also want to look at the time table as to when the economy started going south. I believe you will find that it co-insides with the time that the democrats took over the majority in the house and senate. Reid and Pelosi disgraceful.

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Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications—including the Economist and the New York Times.

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