Are We Headed In The Right Direction?
Written by: Tom Sawyer
This is part of what President Obama had to say last night: “Bankers and executives on Wall Street need to realize that enriching themselves on the taxpayers’ dime is inexcusable, that the days of outsized rewards and reckless speculation that puts us all at risk have to be over.”
Are we headed in the right direction? By the right direction I’m talking about the changes and budget proposals coming from our President. I think it is safe to say that he, President Obama, is doing things differently than President Bush. Sometimes change is good and sometimes change is just…change.
It seems like changes are being made daily, many of which involve spending more money, but are those changes necessary for our economy to recover from the hole we find ourselves in? It could be too early to tell because we are also being told to be patient and it will take months, if not years, for the economy to recover. Well, if we wait months we could find out that we could be worse off then than we are right now. It doesn’t matter who it is coming from, we should listen to differing opinions – a lot is at stake here people.
We have some regulars on 7daybuzz who aren’t enamored with President Obama and they give sound reasons. I would ask people with similar opinions a simple question: do you think we need to continue down the same path we were on for the past 8 years or do we just need to get on a different path than the one President Obama has us on?
Right now, more than ever, we need to put some of the political affiliation aside and worry about how we are going to recover from this thing. A Republican with the same job, working beside a Democrat, could find himself/herself in a bad way and their party affiliation will not matter one bit – and the other way around too. What matters are the decisions made by a government that isn’t going away for at least 3 years and 10 months.
So, do you think we are headed in the right direction?
Tags: economic change will take months, Is President Obama's change in direction correct, Is the US headed in the right direction, months from now we will see if these economic changes were correct
March 25th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I didn’t watch the speech last night because my son had a book report that I was helping him with, which means no TV. I know there are a lot of naysayers regarding the current ecomic path we’re on as a nation. I think it makes sense to give this change a chance to work. I don’t believe it should take more than a year, two at the most, to see if it’s really going work, but at this point it’s only been a couple of months. Change is never without some sort of pain. It’s not like the past several years have been pain free. The stock market is doing better so that should be something to at least increase our hope. The fact that President Obama is requiring accountability to those that are the recipients of the trillions is one of the best changes that ever could have been implemented. Much like most of us now have to do with our own household budgets. I’m remaining hopeful and prayerful for the future, which is about all any of us can do unless you have the personal ear of your congressman or state representatives.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Monique,
I wholeheartedly agree that any form of change can take time. The biggest problem is that the change that is being proposed and executed is something that will likely be impossible to reverse in the event of what I see as definite failure. The Obama administrations primary goal is to acquire as much government control as they can and I don’t know if you’ve looked at the approval ratings of the congress but lets say even Rush Limbaugh has higher numbers.
The government (taxpayers) own majorities in several large banks, they want to control every aspect of health care, and now they want to give the Tax evader Timothy Geitner the power to take over and control a multitude of other companies (including AIG).
I don’t know if I need to reiterate the definition of Socialism but if anyone here would like me to just let me know.
On a side note: It’s nice to see a parent taking a book report/education so serious.
Ryan Kazinec´s last blog post..A Dirty Little Secret to Increase Your Followers on Twitter
March 25th, 2009 at 10:15 am
This is a pretty honest look at Obama’s Budget and press conference Tuesday night.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jrrMd3vVQOVz3VkZpCTUA_B45z3gD974TG500
I may be wrong in my assumption but I think a majority of Americans may have a construed perception of what is really being referred to when Obama and the press talk about his budget and the deficit entangled in it.
Let’s all understand that a deficit is not our National Debt. The deficit is the amount of money the government spends each calendar year that exceeds money made from taxes. So lets say a family makes 100k a year, the deficit would be any money spent that exceeds the families income. However, that deficit is not the total amount of debt the family has, only the debt from that year.
So let me make this very clear. Obama has absolutely no intention on balancing the government check book in his entire term. They will continue to spend more than they make in taxes every year he is office. I’m not saying Bush was an angel because frankly Bush made some horrible choices and largely from the cost of the war, Bush did his share of adding to the deficit. Let’s also remember the Democrats were in control of the Congress for the last two years and had to approve of Bush’s spending. So in regards to spending, are we really seeing any change?
Here’s a dose of reality: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
How are we supposed to pay down the National Debt if there’ s no effort to balance the budget? The dollar is being destroyed on purpose.
Ryan Kazinec´s last blog post..A Dirty Little Secret to Increase Your Followers on Twitter
March 25th, 2009 at 10:23 am
“Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or egalitarian method of compensation.”
I agree with Ryan on this: socialism is not what we want. What comes to mind is all of us in line waiting for our portion of bread and cheese.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:14 am
For the first time since he became President, I didn’t watch Obama, or rather; I didn’t give him my full undivided attention. It was on and playing. I heard most of his speech before taking questions. And as much as I love him, I do think he repeated some of the last two speeches. I did dvr it and I plan to watch it later. I was tired and have recently become convinced that getting my good sleep will cure whatever ails me. I was sleepy so I went to sleep but I will say, and maybe it is because I haven’t followed politics as closely as I am now, it seems like at this stage of the game, Barack Obama is the most closely scrutinized, criticized, Head Person In Charge we’ve had! We have got to give him a chance, some room to clean house and we’ve got to have positive thoughts, which will hopefully turn into positive actions, by us the people, to help make it work.
I do hear you Ryan about the question of being able to turn things around if this plan fails. I never thought of that, or at least not yet. I always just believed it would succeed, mainly because of the administrator and his determination. I guess we must consider the possibility.
March 26th, 2009 at 9:49 am
I watch the president speech and I believe we are headed in the right direction.
Ann Brock´s last blog post..Congregation Said Show Us The Money!
March 27th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I have said this over and over, I am an Obama supporter, but he’s beginning to sound like a broken record to me. He’s not saying anything new. Of course, I’m still going to give him the benefit of the doubt to make things work, especially since he’s only been in office less than 3 months. However, after his speech, I received notification from one of my favorite fact-checking sites: factcheck.org, and this is what they had to say about parts of Obama’s speech:
He said his budget projections are based on economic assumptions that “are perfectly consistent with what Blue Chip forecasters out there are saying.” Not true. The average projection by leading private economists is now for substantially less economic growth than the administration’s forecast assumes.
He said he is reducing “nondefense discretionary spending” to less than it was under the past four presidents. Not true. His own forecast for the final budget of his four-year term puts this figure higher than in many years under Reagan, Clinton or either Bush.
He said he was “angry” about “inexcusable” bonuses paid to AIG executives. But he glossed over the fact that his own aides insisted on watering down a Senate-passed amendment that might have prevented payment of such bonuses.
He repeated that his budget is projected to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his term. That’s true, but deficits also are projected to shoot up again later unless big policy changes are made.
If you want to read the entire article, here’s the link: http://www.factcheck.org/politics/obamas_prime_time_pitch.html