Forward Or Backward?

GDP ‘growth’ fell from 2 to 1.5% for the second quarter ending June. Or to put it another way, a 25% decrease from the first quarter. That’s how it would be described if it was Bush in the White House. And arrgh! We’re headed for a depression! But what do we get? From the architect himself, it is “a step in the right direction.” And, I need another trillion in “stimulus” spending to keep the economy moving “forward. ”

This from the guy that pretends that “taxing the rich” is something fiscally responsible to do for the economy. Something ‘fair,’ given that we are now over $15 trillion dollars in debt.

Let’s talk about being ‘responsible.’ Truth is, Obama has incurred over a trillion dollars in new debt each year he has been in office. And his 10 year budget projection has no year where the annual deficit increases by less than a trillion dollars. In fact, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan that they have no plan to reach a balanced budget. Ever! Completely ignoring the debt bomb on year 11 caused by baby boomers entering Social Security and Medicare.

In a House Budget Committee hearing on the subject, here’s what Geithner told committee chairman Paul Ryan.

We’re not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.

At current spending levels,”taxing the rich”, as Obama puts it, would generate enough revenue to run the government for a total of eight days. Does that sound like a solution to the debt problem? How is that being responsible?

Now if these economic and political facts do not illustrate that his “tax the rich” campaign serves no economic purpose, is nothing more than his divide-and-conquer strategy to stay in The White House via class warfare, I don’t know what can.

UPDATE:

Parting Shot for the AP

Couldn’t help but notice the slug in the Chicago Tribune’s article compared to the title in the dead-tree version and online.

The slug: chi-few-think-sluggish-us-economy-will-strengthen-soon-

The title: GDP: Economy grew at sluggish 1.5% rate in 2Q

In fact, that AP article is so rich (none of it good for Obama) in the condition of the economy and the administrations’ performance that it requires a post of its own. The bad news in it for Obama is dispersed over the entire article to avoid a connection to Obama. Except this one line in a 971 word article “The lackluster economy is raising pressure on President Barack Obama in his re-election fight…”