How would you fix the economy and budget issues?

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

And I gotta say the idea that there's some magic unemployment number that will sink President Obama's chances of getting re-elected is nonsense. It's going to be hard no matter what. But it's going to much more difficult, in my opinion, for the GOP nominee to convince the American people that things would have been appreciably better under his/her stewardship. Obama sucks. Obama failed, Obama's a socialist ain't gonna fly gonna fly in a general election.

So I wouldn't hang my hat on every little economic indicator, poll, statistic, or whatever in an attempt to gauge the president's re-election prospects. No doubt the economy will be the main issue, but it's going to be a tough slog either way.

Well I'd say if the numbers keep going the wrong way all the rep. have to do is play Obama's words about how unemployment will not go over 8%. Then play him talking about creating jobs then show how he was totaly wrong. His 4 yrs has been all about the economy and creating jobs and so far what he has done has not worked. Two years back he could blame Bush but that has grown old on the American people and will be even older a year from now when he is still blaming Bush.

[12thMan]

First, you could run a campaign my friend because that's all the Republicans having been hammering Obama with, and rightfully so. You're also right that the WH oversold the stimulus in that they tried to attach a specific metric to gauge the success or failure of a fiscal policy. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

That said, the election will come down to a choice between candidates not ONLY what the rate of unemployment is. Remember the jokers running for president have their own records to defend, among other things, on the economy. If Obama can come out of the debt negotiations with some sort of compromise/solution, I believe that will help him.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

First, you could run a campaign my friend because that's all the Republicans having been hammering Obama with, and rightfully so. You're also right that the WH oversold the stimulus in that they tried to attach a specific metric to gauge the success or failure of a fiscal policy. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

That said, the election will come down to a choice between candidates not ONLY what the rate of unemployment is. Remember the jokers running for president have their own records to defend, among other things, on the economy. If Obama can come out of the debt negotiations with some sort of compromise/solution, I believe that will help him.

I could never run for office or a campaign. The back ground check would be an issue and I'm not politically correct ( I'd have a George Allen event) and I'd say someting that would get me in trouble.

Solution
That's the problem. There is no real solution on the table and they are only looking for a quick patch job that has been done over and over again by both sides. You also say the WH over sold the stimulas and your totaly wrong. They sold what they believed would happen by throwing around a bunch of money and it did not work as many said from the start. Its called flawd thinking that was the problem. A stimulas tax break would have actually put money into the people pocket and not into the pocket of unions and others Obama wanted to pay back for their support.

To add to his problem is the fact that in the next 6 months that stimulas money will run out for a bunch of states and cities that have avoided laying off employees. Just in Chesapeake Va the school system received around 50 million in stimulas money which runs out soon and they have no way to replace those funds. Thats just one city and no telling the thousands and thousands of cities that have the same problem.

See Obama told them the money had to be spent in two years thinking that the ecomony would be beter in two years an its not. It going to get worse before it gets better.

[firstdown]

I'd not pay my bills and rack up fines like Obama. It just gets better with each new day.

http://politisite.com/2011/07/19/oba...-from-the-law/

[GMScud]

Anyone watch the speech by Big O tonight? Talk about "poll tested words," scare tactics, and bumper sticker rhetoric. Ugh. All he cares about is 2012. Does anyone really have faith in his leadership at this point? Where's the freaking accountability? Can he take responsibility for anything? Still dragging Bush through the mud? For real? Boehner didn't exactly hit a home run either. We're in real trouble.

As far as 2012 goes, Captain Change is losing independents in droves and every time he opens his mouth his poll numbers go down. Makes me chuckle.

Put a damn balanced budget amendment in the Constitution. Continuing to borrow more than we bring in is such a damn embarrassing fail.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Anyone watch the speech by Big O tonight? Talk about "poll tested words," scare tactics, and bumper sticker rhetoric. Ugh. All he cares about is 2012. Does anyone really have faith in his leadership at this point? Where's the freaking accountability? Can he take responsibility for anything? Still dragging Bush through the mud? For real? Boehner didn't exactly hit a home run either. We're in real trouble.

As far as 2012 goes, Captain Change is losing independents in droves and every time he opens his mouth his poll numbers go down. Makes me chuckle.

Put a damn balanced budget amendment in the Constitution. Continuing to borrow more than we bring in is such a damn embarrassing fail.

To be fair spending has been a fail on both sides. What Obama does not understand is that the national dept is the new topic that everyone is concerned about so he needs to address the issue. He does not want to deal with the issue becasue he feels it was a problem that was not of his making so he wants to push it aside. Well its not going away like imigration was the hot issue a few years back. He has no experience and it shows.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Anyone watch the speech by Big O tonight? Talk about "poll tested words," scare tactics, and bumper sticker rhetoric. Ugh. All he cares about is 2012. Does anyone really have faith in his leadership at this point? Where's the freaking accountability? Can he take responsibility for anything? Still dragging Bush through the mud? For real? Boehner didn't exactly hit a home run either. We're in real trouble.

As far as 2012 goes, Captain Change is losing independents in droves and every time he opens his mouth his poll numbers go down. Makes me chuckle.

Put a damn balanced budget amendment in the Constitution. Continuing to borrow more than we bring in is such a damn embarrassing fail.

I'm not sure it's just Obama that's looking bad in the eyes of most.

As for the putting "a damn balanced budget amendment in the Constitution" one has to wonder two things...1) Why didn't the GOP make the proposal while in full command of the country? 2) What is the likelihood of such an amendment passing both houses with just a straight up and down vote (remember, it requires 2/3 vote to pass), the president's desk (veto anyone?), and then being ratified by the 2/3 of the states?

What a fantastic magic show the GOP has put on with their fanciful gimmicks and slight of hands. They must be doing something right if you lot have this much faith in them.

Bravo!

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by saden1

I'm not sure it's just Obama that's looking bad in the eyes of most.

As for the putting "a damn balanced budget amendment in the Constitution" one has to wonder two things...1) Why didn't the GOP make the proposal while in full command of the country? 2) What is the likelihood of such an amendment passing both houses with just a straight up and down vote (remember, it requires 2/3 vote to pass), the president's desk (veto anyone?), and then being ratified by the 2/3 of the states?

What a fantastic magic show the GOP has put on with their fanciful gimmicks and slight of hands. They must be doing something right if you lot have this much faith in them.

Bravo!

Not sure if I have faith in any of them. I do find it funny when one side or the other acts like its totally the other parties fault we are in dept. Plenty of blame for both sides and I believe I have said that all along. Its the same thing I said back when you guys called Bush a conservative. I said he was anything but a conservative.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by saden1

I'm not sure it's just Obama that's looking bad in the eyes of most.

As for the putting "a damn balanced budget amendment in the Constitution" one has to wonder two things...1) Why didn't the GOP make the proposal while in full command of the country? 2) What is the likelihood of such an amendment passing both houses with just a straight up and down vote (remember, it requires 2/3 vote to pass), the president's desk (veto anyone?), and then being ratified by the 2/3 of the states?

What a fantastic magic show the GOP has put on with their fanciful gimmicks and slight of hands. They must be doing something right if you lot have this much faith in them.

Bravo!

Notice I said Boehner didn't exactly hit a home run.

I have pretty much zero faith in either party at this point, which is why I changed my voter registration to independent months ago. Sure I can't vote in primaries now, but whatever.

And as far as a proposed balanced budget amendment being ratified... You're probably right about the difficulty in it getting through. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't be a good thing for America, which is all I was saying.

[Beemnseven]

It still seems to be me that not enough blame has been pinned on the endless, unwinnable wars and military spending in general. It's the sacred cow of Republicans, so I don't expect any help from them. But I'm not hearing Democrats offering much more than lip service to the idea.

The Iraq war alone has figures that reach the 1 trillion dollar mark. If we don't fundamentally change our approach to foreign policy, stop attacking countries that never did anything to us, and give up this worldwide military empire, the debt and the deficit problems aren't going anywhere.

[Daseal]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

It still seems to be me that not enough blame has been pinned on the endless, unwinnable wars and military spending in general. It's the sacred cow of Republicans, so I don't expect any help from them. But I'm not hearing Democrats offering much more than lip service to the idea.

The Iraq war alone has figures that reach the 1 trillion dollar mark. If we don't fundamentally change our approach to foreign policy, stop attacking countries that never did anything to us, and give up this worldwide military empire, the debt and the deficit problems aren't going anywhere.

Exactly. You want to win a war now days? Use economic force to play hardball. That's what China has started doing and it has been quite effective. It's time to a) stop jumping into conflicts. Bombs, planes, guns, soldiers, contractors, etc are very expensive. We seem to act as the world police. That needs to stop. We need to invest less in weapons and manpower. The average military grunt may get a low paycheck -- but he costs the taxpayers a bundle and quite honestly, is starting to become less and less necessary.

The above paragraph aren't my own thoughts, that is nearly exactly what my professor, a retired Air Force General, said last semester. I just happen to share them.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

It still seems to be me that not enough blame has been pinned on the endless, unwinnable wars and military spending in general. It's the sacred cow of Republicans, so I don't expect any help from them. But I'm not hearing Democrats offering much more than lip service to the idea.

The Iraq war alone has figures that reach the 1 trillion dollar mark. If we don't fundamentally change our approach to foreign policy, stop attacking countries that never did anything to us, and give up this worldwide military empire, the debt and the deficit problems aren't going anywhere.

I would back 100% us pulling our troops out of 90% of the places we have them all over the world. I'm for a strong military but what we have is way more then what we need.

[12thMan]

Obama's polls numbers are solid. The only voters he's losing in droves is the Tea Party.

I was coming out of pub a few days ago and walked right past Eric Cantor. I almost hurled my Jameson back up. Pathetic.

[Slingin Sammy 33]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

Obama's polls numbers are solid. The only voters he's losing in droves is the Tea Party.

I was coming out of pub a few days ago and walked right past Eric Cantor. I almost hurled my Jameson back up. Pathetic.

Not so fast my friend. I can't think of any Tea Party folks who supported Obama in the first place. Obama is losing Independents and likely moderate-fiscally conservative Ds.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll - Rasmussen Reports™

Obama Ties Romney | Loses Among Independents | PPP Poll | The Daily Caller

[12thMan]

Originally Posted by Slingin Sammy 33

Not so fast my friend. I can't think of any Tea Party folks who supported Obama in the first place. Obama is losing Independents and likely moderate-fiscally conservative Ds.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll - Rasmussen Reports™

Obama Ties Romney | Loses Among Independents | PPP Poll | The Daily Caller

The Tea Party thing was a little tongue and cheek.

I feel Rasmussen polling is an outlier for a few reasons. I rely more on the polling averages (RealClearPolitics - Opinion, News, Analysis, Videos and Polls) and not just one poll, because they're all tilted a bit. Quinnipiac is usually on the mark, however, whereas Rasmussen has a tendency to overstate Republican opinion and badly missed the mark in a number of states during the mid-term elections. Given that unemployment is where it is and the country in general is in a sour mood, I don't think the president could ask for any better than 45% approval right now.

Basically his base will be there come 2012: Jews, blacks, hispanics (don't believe the hype) gays, and female voters. So you're talking about Obama and whomever the GOP nominates will be vying for about 20-25% of the electorate. Probably your middle class independent white male. Without offending anyone on the board, I would say someone in Schneed's demographic. I don't know his politics, but he's about as objective as they come. Right now Obama is faring well vs Republicans--not great-- in a few key states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. If he can pluck 2 or 3 of those states, he's going to be pretty hard to beat.

Finally, I would add any poll that has Sarah Palin within striking distance of the front runner Mitt Romney would make me a little suspicious. Not because of it's lack of accuracy, but it just shows you how much people are paying attention. Her candidacy is DOA, even among the most right leaning Republicans. I think once we get on the other side of Labor Day weekend, settle this debt ceiling thing, let Rick Perry flex a little bit, things will get a little more interesting.

Edit: In the spirit of keeping this thread on topic, let's move additional comments to the presidential thread.