It's been almost half a year since your inauguration into the highest level of office and it seems as though quite a bit has happened. And as of this point, I can't say that I am exactly too pleased with what is going on right now. And as you can see from these numbers, many people agree.

You see, President Obama, I voted for you not because of your skin color, not because I was "wooed" by your seemingly hypnotizing yet charismatic voice, but because I believe that you have what it takes to lead our country in the right direction, unite all political differences, and make people once again remember that The United States of America is a country that everyone loved.

During your first several weeks of Presidency, I was feeling a bit uneasy about the Stimulus Package. Calling for $787 billion that we don't even have and putting it in the hands of our very questionable governmental hands I have to say is very very risky. It's a hit or miss, but I believe it had to eventually be risked (which is something i commend you for.)

So I've decided to wait before voicing any comments or concerns about this package. Six months may still be a bit early to some, but to be too early is better than to be too late. This summer I have been listening to news radio as they actually talk about, things that matter today, unlike the media today with all this Michael Jackson died boohoo, Sarah Palin is a quitter lololol, omg lost children omgomgomg, etc etc. Daily, they talk about what's going on with our economy (Obama) and events going on around the world (Iran, N. Korea, etc.) I must say I wish I had gotten into radio news talk earlier.

So anyways President Obama, I've refrained from voicing any opinion upon such matters like this stimulus package until we start seeing things happening but as of late, it's been getting quite difficult to do so. A\s soon as I heard that a second Stimulus Bill is to be called for, I believe my comfort zone has been breached.

I listen to both Liberal and Conservative media, I try not to hold any political affiliation. I use to believe social values were important, but when it comes to politics such matters are petty and insignificant. Now as for my economic/fiscal view, I have to say is like a young kid caught in the fray of mom and dad quarreling and arguing to the point that divorce and violence is nigh. Listening to Liberal media, all I hear them go on and on and on and on about is "LOL BUSH SUX!! LOLOLOLOL." Indeed George W. Bush was not a great president but we must move on (which is something you, President Obama, has pushed for throughout his whole campaign.) And in these last few days when I turn the channel to MSNBC all I see them talk about is Sarah Palin. They rerun the same. damn. clips. that they've ran throughout the entire McCain/Palin campaign era! Isn't it time that we move on and focus on more important things? By important things I do not mean MICHAEL JACKSON/BILLY MAYS/STEVE MCNAIR/FARRAH FAWCETT DIED!! It's sad how society cares more about these celebrity deaths than they do with what the hell is happening within our country and around the world TODAY (if I want celebrity deaths, I may as well feast upon this site daily.) Stuff like Democrats suspecting that the CIA has been lying to us is indeed something that can be somewhat news worthy but it's funny how we can all see this turn into more "Bush-lied-to-us-and-sux-so-hard" which isn't to say that it's wrong and false but the whole point of me bringing all of this up is that this is the perfect scapegoat for avoiding today's (controversial or not) economic and foreign issues.

Now when I turn to Conservative Media, we all know that it's Barack Obama bashing. On and on they criticize what Obama is doing and I use to dismiss it as typical conservative nut job bashing but recently I've actually decided to sit down and listen to what they've had in store. And to be honest, I came to realize that they aren't as ignorant and uneducated as people make them out to be. I couldn't help but realize some of the truth they are saying (and I would absolutely LOVE to show you some of the stuff they talk about but unfortunately I hear this all on radio so I'll try to cite other sources which say similar things.) So apparently, the First Stimulus Package isn't working. You may say "it's too early to say! Just wait and see; let it hopefully work its magic." No we can't wait and see. not when our country is sky rocketing up to a 9.5% or higher unemployment rate at freightening speeds. The most typical and overused argument for this is "Well Bush fucked up our economy!" which people think should somehow exonerate President Obama, the scums at Washington Hill, or the greedy chumps on Wall street of every "bad" thing they've done as of yet (if such a situation ever does arise.)

Here's something conservatives brought up. What if, what if this $787 billion were instead of being placed into the government's hands via Stimulus Package, it were rather placed into the hands of the working American, the hard working money earning United States of American Citizen or laborer and circulated throughout our nation like the way our founding fathers wanted this nation to run like? How this would be done is to relieve us of our taxes for a bit (Essentially by not having to pay taxes the Government is in short handing money back to us.) Or something like that I can't remember exactly, but from the general idea of this would we be where we are right now? To be honest, I don't know. I would love to hear you guys' input on this.

It's sad how very few people, particularly the more leftward leaning folks, like to tackle the important issues that's been going on within our Nation's Capital. There seems to be a seemingly relentless flow of criticism and talk about what Obama's doing with our economy such as this, and this. Where's the defense? Why aren't people trying to defend these policies and actions? I've searched everywhere and again all I see are people living in the past dwelling or talking about other issues (see my reference to all this scapegoat talk.)
Well again this may be a bit too early to say, which i can wholeheartedly agree with but like I said we'd rather it not be too late. I don't want to graduate from college and end up as part of the fast growing 10%+ unemployed individuals. I would also not like to see my parents once again get laid off and fumble through the job listings pages looking for a way to put me through school and support themselves.


But, President Obama, I have not lost all faith in you yet. I am keeping a rather optimistic mindset throughout these rough oceans we're sailing through. It's been almost six months since you became our president but as of today 7/9/09, things aren't looking as great as we had all hoped (hence the 42% approval 58% disapproval rating, -8% overall as can be seen from the very first link of this post.) I voted for you because I believe you can bring our country back into prosperity from the eight years of the Bush Administration that we have lived through (and can do a much better job at this than John McCain.) These next several months I will once again sit quietly and see how you can solve this very difficult problem that our nation faces. If things start to get better then i will retract EVERY negative-ish thing i've said about you but if our nation starts getting worse and worse like we are at this fleeting instantaneous moment, then I... really don't know what to say...

Thank You and good luck, President Barrack Hussein Obama.

One thing you need to realize is that the banks are the basis of the American economy. If the banks go under, the economy is fucked. Also, a lot of the stimulus money went to buying up mortgages, helping the banks, and the homeowners. Another important thing to think about is that the government can't just give a tax break. Hate to sound like I'm bashing Bush, but we invaded Iraq when we needed to invade Afghanistan. We fought the wrong war and we are now paying, what, $10,000,000,000 a month in Iraq? We have a national debt of nine trillion dollars with a deficit of one hundred billion dollars. If we don't do something, many economists believe that deficit can only go up. I believe that the stimulus package might not work (I still feel it's too early to tell), but it was better to take a gamble than sit by and let the economy go further downhill. In short, we needed to take some action and now we need to see if the action we took will work. I'm no economist, but based on what they are saying, Obama made the right choice.

Yes I totally agree with everything you said. I also believe Obama did the right thing by taking risks, but one thing I want to point out is that one of the roots to this whole feeling of uneasiness stirring within me is what Vice President Joe Biden said:
source

Makes one feel very uncomfortable when the man who promised change we can believe in, the same man who knew full well in advance the debt and deficit our country was in, the same man who knew exactly what wars we are or aren't suppose to be in and how much money they cost monthly/yearly, and the same man who pledged to fix all the problems the "failed" Bush Administration left behind misjudges the biggest problem in the country. It's like a student who claims he can solve a really difficult math problem but when presented with the problem itself he wimps out saying that he underestimated the complexity of the problem.

Why do we care what our debt is? I mean really, why do we even CARE anymore. What's a 10% increase? That's less than a tip.

Economic problems which have been 60 years in the making can't be fixed in 6 months. They probably COULD have been fixed by now if Gore continued Clinton's budget. Don't you think Obama genuinely cares? I sure do. If he had a magic wand to make it all better, he would use it. Too bad magic doesn't exist. There's no point in getting that pissed off over something you no longer have any control over. You elected him, and now we're stuck with him for 4 years. Oh well, he'll just be another Herbert Hoover.

At least you don't have to find a job in this mess right now.

I agree with just about everything above.

Though one thing i would like to point out; in many of his speeches, President Obama stated that not everything that he will do will succeed or help, but somthing must be done. The economy is going to take a lot longer than most people think to completely turn around.

I'm also glad to know that our president is focusing money into creating Green jobs; which in the long term will help us a lot. Though the green energy part of the bill isnt a significant chunk, its still going to help us down the road

As of now, i still am for Obama, but depending on how he spends the next few years, that might change dramatically.

I would not put the 700 billion into the working American. I would put it in green jobs,agriculture and education. New jobs can be created by having an increase in educated people. The U.S. is lacking behind in education and I do not think the average working American would help the economy. If more people were educated, we could have better technology to build for the future.

I find it hilarious how people were so into Obama. It was rather obvious that he won't meet expectations, because those were set so high. That said, I believe that very few people could've fixed the economy, and no matter what the republicans say, they couldn't have done much better. A direct stimulus applies the money, and efficiency is lost because the government isn't efficient, for whatever reason. A tax cut applies the money by giving it to the people, and efficiency is lost because some people hoard or whatever they do. You can't definitively say who is in the right.

Lower your expectations. He's not an angel, he just ran a campaign where he pretended to be one, and people responded so well that he continued to pretend to be one after the campaign. He'll help the economy along, probably a little better than the republicans would have, and in some time we'll be out of the recession. There's no magical 'right' solution which only Obama can find and apply to fix all the problems, he only has so many cards. The US is in deep debt, and it doesn't particularly matter at this point. If Obama clears out some of the crap spending, that'd be dandy; he definitely won't balance the budget, but hopefully by the end of the recession (if its during his term) he'll be able to set a precedent.

If I were president, I would likely do (economically, I'm an economic 'liberal' (by American standards) and a social conservative) essentially the same thing he's doing, except I'd spend much more of the money on education. And I'd try to strengthen government control over the people, but thats just my social conservatism speaking.

Very nice post MA, I appreciated the sources.

I can confidently (without any credentials or liability whatsoever) say that putting the money in the hands of the people would have failed miserably. Oh, we would have seemingly ended the repression in one fell swoop. Except 6 months or a year later, when the free money ran out, every person would have been in exactly the same position that he or she had been in before the payments. If you give your parents $5,300, for example, are they going to create any new jobs? Are they going to be able to do anything with that money besides buy things? Buying things doesn't solve the economic problems unless that directly leads to more people making things. And it would have done so, for 6-12 months. But then we'd be right back with high layoff rates, except we'd be $800 billion (more) down.

10% on 9trillion+ is a big deal. That's why people care. If every president says "why do we care? 10% isn't more than a tip", we'll be in a world of hurt. 10% on 10% is exponential, and very extreme when dealing with the numbers we are. Especially when he's not the genius like Romney is in economy, I don't trust this man with my tax dollars. He's careless and ineffective.

10% on 11 trillion is not a big deal. Every president HAS said this. We ARE in a world of hurt. We can't just up and stop. What we CAN do is create an inflection point so we gradually decrease the rate of increase in national debt, so we can eventually get a surplus by 2030 or so, but that's not going to happen when we have fiscal liberals like bush and obama in the government.

Mass distribution of money is a horrible idea. There are so many that are eligable that you'd get nothing. We all need to either go to a full blown war and TAKE resources, or withdraw and conserve them.

On one hand you break world peace and get millions killed (not a bad idea) or on the other you look a pussy.

With UK, we are just filled with immigrants and louts just leeching my tax.

Obama is anti-productive to America. Some people are so biased.
Give me a president that makes harmony between the nations and people.
Give me a president who removes the unfair tax system.
And lastly but certainly not least.
A president who doesn't make uncountable empty promises just to improve his own agenda.
Can't you see that he is using you?

The world is currently going through the bad phase of the economic cycle. Unfortunately this has been exacerbated by extremely irresponsible behaviour by investment bankers, who have played with fire and got everyone burnt.

The stimulus package is a common measure in the less free-market economies of Europe, and works on the Keynesian principle of demand-side economics. In other words, if the government creates demand for products and services by spending, then jobs will be created and the economy will grow. This doesn't happen overnight. When FDR took similar measures (not on the same scale, but extreme for their time) in the 30s, the results were not instant either. Such a deep recession takes time to recover from, no matter how much money you throw at the economy. I know it's a bitter pill to swallow, especially if you've lost your job, but we've all got to be patient and try to survive until things get better, which they will.

What is needed is investment in new technology and education, and the establishment of a long-term plan whereby the government can guide private enterprise into making choices which are not just best for themselves but best for the long-term future of the country and indeed the world. The US may remain insular, but we are all increasingly part of a world community and the sooner everyone realises it the better.

No, I can't.

I have yet to lose all faith in Obama. I voted for him because I believed he would help us. To some extent, I believe McCain would not have done any better, so it's not really our loss.

I think many of you are under the illusion that the President has some power over the allocation of tax dollars.
The President may veto any bill with less than a 2/3 majority vote in Congress, and stop certain spending, but he cannot allocate tax dollars himself. He may propose a budget, but Congress ratifies it. Obama is NOT going to be the one to fix our economy:
for that, look to your Senators and Representatives.

I don't mean to say he won't help; he certainly has plenty of executive means by which to persuade people, but the places that American tax dollars go is decided by Congress, not Obama.


First, it's over 1 trillion dollars, I call that a big deal.
Second, you have a point about the inflection point, but it was congress who gave bush/obama the $$$

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other that have been tried."
-Winston Churchill

If we'd pull out of Iraq and fight a war that makes sense the economy would START improving.

What does it take to fight a war that "makes sense"? Just so we're clear on what problem you have with it.

Also, I was under the impression that we have been pulling out Iraq?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 6 2009, 4:38 am by Dapperdan.

I'm all for getting some input from conservative media. Fox News is just... well, one of their lines a few weeks ago was "If Obama was born 200 years ago, he would have been a slave." Thank you, Fox News! Also, Glenn Beck is just crazy. I know no better way to put it - he is one crazy motherfucker. I think he's part schizophrenic with his "I can connect the dots when everyone else can't" speeches. He's crazy, and Hannity's just an asshole, and Bill O'Reilly does whatever it takes to get his ratings up. Perhaps I was mistaken in thinking that that prestigious news channel was the premier conservative news outlet in America.

You know why the money would have been poorly spent by going out to the people? Because they would have used it to pay off debt. If I got $1,000, I wouldn't go out and spend it immediately. I would have let it sit in my savings account for when I really, truly needed it. By going out to the banks, businesses, and infrastructure, that money injects some funds with an IV into the economy, gets some money being lent again (so that businesses can create some more jobs and expand), and actually lets some unemployed folks get work for a few weeks, months, or even permanently. I really don't think we need a tax break. People just need to live within their means better. When the average credit card debt is... source like $8,400 per household. Student debt, on average, is $20,000. If we're handing out money, why not hand out more money to higher education? But still, if you can't afford it, don't buy it.

But you know, as has been mentioned, the president doesn't make policy, so you shouldn't criticize him solely for bills that have been passed. From what I've seen, the Republicans have just been hoping that he'd fail, doing everything they can by just saying no to everything, and not really offering alternatives. Besides, there are jokers on both sides of the aisle. It sure is hard to believe Sarah Palin rail against stimulus money when she had Ted Stevens, who was absolutely notorious for pet projects in Alaska, as senator. If I were to criticize govt though, it'd be the House and Senate, because they just bicker too much and have no interest in working together.


No, Biden's quote was more like a math nerd who said, "Well, guys, this is harder than I thought, so it's going to take longer and the math might not be as clean as you'd like, but I'll solve it with an extra hour or two.

I've given up on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc. At work I listen to radio news and it's like 1000000x better than all television media combined. They get straight to the facts and talk about things that actually matter. I encourage you all to start listening to radio news.

(but you have to admit, Fox News does have some pretty damn good looking chicks LOL)

Rush Limbaugh much?