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Originally Posted by justplugit
Spence, let me throw it back atcha, do you feel you and our country are
better off now then 4 years ago?
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Personally yes, I am much better off than I was 4 years ago.
As for the country I think it's neutral. On one hand 4 years ago the country was already in a massive recession but just didn't know it. While there's a long way to go our economy has stabilized quite a bit. Yes, unemployment is still very high but this is a product of the recession...Obama has done much to help small business, but it's not like the situation will be fixed in just a few years...there are deeper structural problems.
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I don't. I still have 2 family members that have been put
out of work over the last 3 years, one for 17 months now. Neither had a problem for the last 15 years. More overtime then they could use.
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Their unemployment while unfortunate isn't really a direct product of Obama policy is it? Unemployment today is a combination of many factors, technology and globalism being two big ones.
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As a retired person I have seen my IRA retirement fund go from earning 8% a year, with a 70% bond 30% stock mix, to a paultry 2% which doesn't keep up with inflation. When your lucky to get .01 % on your treasurey MMKT just to keep your $ safe,
that about says it all. Gas prices from mid $2 to $3.50. Food prices up big time and on and on. Go to the hardware store and tell me inflation hasn't sky rocketed.
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What could have Obama done to increase the yield on your money market?
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His energy policy stinks. No new drilling! You gotta be kidin me, foreign oil has us over a barrel. Spending tax money on Solyndra and 10 other companies going broke to give the appearance "Green" is our savior? Pfft, what a joke. Tell me I'm better off with this policy alone than I was 3 years ago. I'm not.
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This simply isn't true.
Obama has allowed for expanded drilling in the Gulf and in Alaska and made proposals to expand drilling off both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Yes, there was a deep water moratorium after the BP spill, but that was temporary and has been lifted as well.
As for investment in green companies. This is something the government has been doing for a while. Some of the criticism if the money has been allocated in a prudent manner is valid, but it's not socialism.
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I could go on and on about how his spending policies, wanting to spread the wealth around, more government regulations, bigger government, increasing the defecit and taking us down the socialistic road and how it will affect my kids and Grandkids.
Lovin my kids and Grandkids and what his policies will do to them now and in the future is the biggest impact on my life.
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Again, what has Obama done that really that different than the previous administration? Obama hasn't raised your taxes, he's actually shrunk the number of federal government employees, and much of the deficit he inherited from Bush.
This isn't to say our present situation is great, but the assertion that we're neck deep in "Obama socialism" just doesn't seem to be true. I'd be willing to wager that had McCain won in 2008, aside from the health care bill, things wouldn't look all that much different than they do today. Though I'd note that even the HCB contains a lot of Republican ideas.
I do agree that he does set the tone, but is this more a product of PR or actual policy? On the policy side he's done a lot that's positive for business, but some just want to see everything Obama as the product of liberalism and therefor incompatible.
-spence