How Obama Blew a Big Debt Deal

Reader Comments
Back to blog

So now I read the rest of the article and I still think Rick is crazy. The first paragraph is nuts, but it could be a joke I guess. Then he goes on to explain how Obama is a complete failure so the first paragraph does really look like a joke. But then he goes on to conclude that re-electing Obama is the cure-all for our problems.
So perhaps Rick really wanted to say all of the stuff in the middle but the only way to get it past the editors was to praise Obama at the beginning and the end. Ludicrous.

KevinD of FL 6:03PM July 27, 2011

I just finished the first paragraph and I am sure that Rick has lost his mind. Rick, Obama is the most partisan, sniping President that I have seen in my lifetime. How can you possibly suggest that he is somehow rational, unless you are only referring to how he scores political points with his base. All he does is snipe at Republicans for offering up their solutions while he offers nothing. Where is his plan for solving this or any other problem? He has none. Can you say "empty suit"?

KevinD of FL 4:56PM July 27, 2011

Obamas Fault?
He passed a huge stimulus bill with no plan to pay for it
Obama inherited a nation in financial crisis, precipitated by years of
Partisan politics that refused to address key issues with the housing
finance market they'd been aware of (and failed to legislate) 7 years
----------
Yeah, Republicans demanded to put strict regulations of Fannie and Freddie but Democrats resisted and accused Republicans of racism, as always.
Everybody can see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
So, we have enormous debt for which both parties are responsible, and what does Obama? Throws a trillion dollars down the drain. Pouring gasoline on the fire sure way to extinguish it - typical Democrat logic

Ivan of DC 1:23PM July 23, 2011

Yea, Obama is a special genius. I can tell that by the fact that his first act as president was to block all access to his public, personal and educational records for the next 20 years. His Democratic-led senate has yet to create (never mind pass) a budget in almost three years, as they are legally required to do. Why? Because Harry Reid, the senate majority leader, has told them to "wait it out." In other words, don't create anything that can be criticized politically so that we can blame everything on Republicans. The Republicans have produced at least four scoreble budgets.
As president Obama did present a budget, as he was legally required to do, between the first week of January and the first week of February each year. Only his budget was so bad that it would have tripled our debt by 2016. It was not scoreable. It was so bad that it did not receive a single vote in the senate - either democratic or republican. Obama has instructed Ben Bernanke to follow the exact formula that led to the great depression. We are about to enter our third session of quantitative easing, meaning our money is being quickly devalued and inflation is rising. People realize this intuitively, but don't understand it because the press says it isn't so. This is for several reasons. First, our press is not longer free. It's owned by a few individuals who heavily censor the news. Second, food and fuel have been excluded from the formula for inflation. Our real inflation has hovered around 26.7%. The second action which will hasten a depression is increasing taxation. Obama knows this.
Our debt has already been downgraded by Egan-Jones and Weiss ratings. Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch continue to threaten a downgrade, but they are well behind the curve of our overseas peers. Dagong, China's credit rating agency has already downgraded U.S. debt, putting us on par with Chile. China claims that due to the massive quantitative easing (inflation) created by Bernanke, the U.S. has already defaulted on its debt to them. The German credit-rating agency, Feri, also downgraded U.S. debt in June from AAA to AA. Feri cited high public debt, inadequate fiscal measures and weaker growth prospects as its reasons. Most Americans don't realize this unless they work in finance because the U.S. press is told not to write about it.
I am curious whether this comment will make it past the censors at U.S. News, as whenever I introduce facts to this forum they go into censorship overload.

jonque of NY 1:49PM July 22, 2011

He passed a huge stimulus bill with no plan to pay for it
Obama inherited a nation in financial crisis, precipitated by years of
Partisan politics that refused to address key issues with the housing
finance market they'd been aware of (and failed to legislate) 7 years
previous when Bush and McCain attempted it, and the same risky
investment vehicles responsible for the last recession that Alan Greenspan
lied his tail off convincing congress not to legislate over a decade previous
to that. Obama stepped into a runaway train. At that point, you yank the
break for all your worth, pray and worry about the mess your making in the
dining car later.
He failed to tackle costs in his healthcare reform plan
and the Republican and Tea party plans were? (sound of crickets) Nothing.
While they railed, whined and shouted Na Na Na, they never put forward any
sort of alternative. They didn't do their part to make American Politics work.
Present an alternative plan, work with the other party to come up with a
compromise that makes nobody really happy but does the job. Health care
reform HAD to happen. We just couldn't let this continue the way it was. We
certainly couldn't wait just so a Republican president could get credit for it.
He extended the Bush tax cuts with no worries about the debt.
????????? only after repeated pummeling from tea partyists and Republicans
did Obama finally acknowledge that he wasn't going to win this one
He hasn't gone public with a convincing debt-reduction plan.
Naive much? These deals have from the beginning of our nation been
worked out in back rooms among the politically powerful. The public
sees what they are supposed to see a great grand wrangling on the political
stage, which is all smoke to mask the true battles taking place in
congressional offices and committees. For God's sake take a Government
course.

Joe of TX 10:27AM July 22, 2011

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/two-never-used-navy-ghost-ships-sent-scrap-164452572.html

LonelyGuyUSD of CA 10:21PM July 21, 2011

I thank god we have a president like OBAMA. I assume if he is white.. all this resistnace by team party would not happen. Where were these Tea baggers when bush spend 1T in useless wars that did not bring anything but 6000 dead and 50 thousand wounded. Bush was the one killed the economy giving house to zero earner and bubble burst.
Obama inherited this problem. Some people say he is no leader. then who is a leader..Bush or Dick chenny.. Romney,Pali..

James Uttin of NY 6:12PM July 21, 2011

I was with you 100% until the last 2 paragraphs, where you say that Obama would be likely to finally make some real spending cuts in his second term. What evidence do you have for that. Your own article proves that Obama has never had a desire to cut spending, even when he had complete control of the gov, and he was popular enough that he could have passed almost anything. So why should he want to when he no longer has any limitations on his actions. My prediction would be that he would try to spend even more. He is a big gov socialist that will expand gov every chance he gets. his record makes that clear. Reelecting him will guarantee one thing, continuous resistance to spending cuts, and constant demands for more taxes.

richard40 of OK 6:09PM July 21, 2011

Oh come on, now!
He had the deficit commission, that super-dooper Blue Ribbon panel which he promptly...ignored.
He submitted a budget of his own in the later winter, which went 0-97 in the US Senate. Ooops.
He gave a speech for a budget, but of course the CBO cannot score speeches. Ouch.
We are pushing over 800 days without a budget, that is one reason we have this mess.
He may be a nice man. He may have a very beautiful family.
Yet events are showing the man to be very think skinned, very disinterested, and he clearly is no leader.
This will keep up until he leaves office. It is a pattern of bahavior.
Be well.

JJC of IL 3:31PM July 21, 2011

I got your irony, though it took a few minutes:
Mr. "I'm the only adult in the room" essentially told Middle America "Nice little Social Security check Granny's got... it'd be a terrible shame if somebody voted the wrong way and that check went "poof"... if ya know what I mean... "
Then you say "Obama ... is obviously weary of the partisan bickering that threatens to cut off the government's borrowing ability" which is an obvious dig at this Administration's borrow-and-spend governmental policies that have crashed our economy for the last 2-1/2 years.
Then you tell us "... the government will still be deeply in the red in 2013, when the next president is sworn in", which hints to us what's really happening: our responsible and rational president doesn't want to jeopardize his chance at re-election, so that's why he's playing "hands-off" with our economy. He'd rather gamble that we'll muddle through somehow, avoiding the threatened ratings downgrades, a government shutdown, and ultimately a disastrous credit default, as opposed to showing true leadership and doing what's necessary to try to get us to fiscal sanity again. As with Greece and the rest of Europe, the required commitments to austerity would be painful (and uniformly unpopular), and would nix his chances at staying in power another 4 years.
So -- well done, Mr. Newman!! While lauding our President with words of approbation, you've highlighted his total LACK of willingness to actually take any stand at all in leading this nation toward sanity, merely because he wants four more years of being the Most Powerful Man in America. Fulsome praise fit for a statesman, contrasted with the self-serving actions of a truly venal man.
Again I say: Masterful!

A_Nonny_Mouse of CO 2:52PM July 21, 2011