Why a 2.5 percent growth rate might be better than you think
As we noted this morning, the nation’s gross domestic product grew by 2.5 percent in the 3rd quarter, which isn’t great by any means. It’s better than the 1.3 percent in the 2nd quarter, or the 0.9 percent in the first quarter. But we have to do better. Overall, the projections I’ve seen predict 2.0 percent growth next quarter and on into 2012, although those numbers may now rise a bit.
Again, not great.
It started me wondering, though: How does 2.5 percent growth or 2 percent growth compare to the economic growth rate back when we had an MBA president in the White House, rather than this business-hating Marxist?
For example, what was the average annual real GDP growth in President Bush’s second term, from 2005-2008? Anybody care to guess?
Here, I’ll give you some choices:
A. 1.85 percent
B. 2.65 percent
C. 3.2 percent
D. 4.1 percent
The answer is A., 1.85 percent.
Now, maybe it’s unfair to focus on Bush’s last four years. Maybe we should look at his presidency as a whole: What was the average annual growth rate of real GDP from 2001 to 2008?
Was it:
A. 2.04 percent
B. 2.7 percent
C. 3.1 percent
D. 3.5 percent
The answer, once again, is A. In the eight years of the MBA presidency, real GDP grew by an average annual rate of 2.04 percent. I just thought that might be useful for those who want to keep things in perspective.
– Jay Bookman
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504 comments Add your comment
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
6:21 pm
http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Entertainment/Conservative-Celebrites/5289/1/
Jay
October 27th, 2011
6:21 pm
Judd Gregg is no longer in Congress and both Crapo and Coburn eventually caved to the party orthodoxy on taxes. It’s no accident that neither was named to the supercommittee.
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:24 pm
Scout
I read it and do recommend it…not because I agree wholeheartedly with much of what he is saying, but because he has the temerity to bring up things that have been taboo by “major” historians…but, ssshhh, we might not want to be talking this here…it’ll get some of the orthodox conservatives panties in a wad, and I’m not sure I’m up to that tonight….I’m on something more “objective” along those lines on the other screen…
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
6:24 pm
What country was that?
The “Isle of Man” ?
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
6:26 pm
One could, if one lived in Ga…..otherwise, those that don’t live there anymore might not care.
I had to step out for a few. Anyway, I live in Georgia, md, how ’bout you. And as for that little 14 trillion dollar “factoid” you mentioned, tell us all how much Paul Ryans plan will impact that number.
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:26 pm
Scout…
You didn’t!
But it was Romania…
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
6:28 pm
“OCCUT*RD” ALERT:
Headline: “White House Press Secretary Carney Tells Occupy Protesters To “Act In A Lawful Manner”
getalife
October 27th, 2011
6:29 pm
2.5 % growth vs let it fail and default.
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
6:30 pm
josef:
Here’s why I thought of it. These guys are suicidal !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxHzwWndtvk
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
6:30 pm
josef:
Here’s why I thought of it. These guys are suicidal !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxHzwWndtvk
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
6:30 pm
Reb, did you see that 80% of Americans support abortion?
His very first move in office was to pander to his religious, far right wing base.
A divider. Not a uniter.
There are tons of other examples.
BTW, the author that book is not just some schmoe, no-name polemicist.
He is recognized as one of the premier scholars in the study of Congressional Campaigns and Election, publishing numerous books and articles on the subject. He is also a frequent commentator for news programs and radio commentary such as NPR.
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
6:32 pm
Scout, did you cheer when you heard this news?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/occupy-oakland-veteran-scott-olsens-injuries-prompt-internal-police-review/2011/10/27/gIQAVrs1LM_blog.html
Jm
October 27th, 2011
6:32 pm
Jay
Oh yeah boehner too
Ross Perot
October 27th, 2011
6:32 pm
So if a majority of people don’t get a piece of legislation that they want, the person that denied it is a divider. So if kids parents deny them cake before dinner they’re divisive too by that logic…
Dagmar Bigtats
October 27th, 2011
6:33 pm
Clapton is God!
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:34 pm
Scout
Neat! And, pssst…go to 0:35 in it and look at the wall ad…couldn’t get by with that here…
md
October 27th, 2011
6:35 pm
“I had to step out for a few. Anyway, I live in Georgia, md, how ’bout you. And as for that little 14 trillion dollar “factoid” you mentioned, tell us all how much Paul Ryans plan will impact that number.”
Nope….no longer in Ga…..got tired of living a good part of my life in the car. Left for greener (quieter) pastures outside the boundaries of the lifelong home State……..
As for Ryan’s plan……don’t recall ever endorsing it…….I’m not the lockstep kind of guy.
I’ll consider everything, but tend to slide to the middle knowing more often than not no one side is totally correct. I’m all over the place depending on the issue…….even empathize with what some are doing in the ows movement…….but don’t think they stand a chance if folks like Michael Moore step up as their spokesperson……his rants are just nuts.
Gordon
October 27th, 2011
6:35 pm
Jay,
First, thanks for responding.
Regarding what is and is not an entitlement, I think most people use that word to describe programs such as Medicare. http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/entitlement_program
Regardless, my point is that Republicans WON’T try to block such a change if Democrats bring it up in 2013. It is much easier politically to raise taxes than to cut spending, because cutting affects more people (or should I say voters?). Our government has proven it can raise taxes, raise spending, and cut taxes. When has it shown it can cut spending in a meaningful way? Adjustments to the COLA on Social Security is NOTHING. I keep hearing “balanced approach”, and we hear a lot of details on the raising taxes side of the argument, but no such details on real, fundamental, spending cuts on entitlements (or whatever you want to call Medicare and SS). When someone like Paul Ryan actually does he is ostracized by even many in his own party. Raising taxes alone is just another clang, clang, clang, of the proverbial can being kicked down the road.
JohnnyReb
October 27th, 2011
6:36 pm
AmVet – I believe you mean that 80% are pro choice, whch is big difference vs 80% being for abortion. Even those who would never have an abortion don’t like the government telling them they can’t.
Abortion is the life-long disagreement. I see it difficult for use in identifying Bush or Obama as dividers. I see Obama trying to divide Americans along lines of haves and have nots as well above the abortion debate, very destructive, and unpresidential.
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
6:36 pm
One last note on this matter, Johnny Reb,
…Bush blocking federal funding for abortions…
It is pretty clear you did not read the info I provided.
Although Bush justified his order by saying that “taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions,” taxpayer funds were not in fact being used for those purposes, since that’s been illegal since 1975. The executive order places a gag on family planning organizations worldwide…
Soothsayer
October 27th, 2011
6:38 pm
Reading these blogs every it occurs to me what would finally make the Fright Wing happy?
If we did away with all constitutional freedoms, if we eliminated all social programs, if we eliminated all oversight of the financial dealings, if we eliminated all environmental regulations, if we eliminated all taxes, if we eliminated all government, if we eliminated all laws.
What would it take?
An experiment coming close to that very thing took place at the beginning of the last decade. The result is the economy and society we have now.
A decade of theft, lies, deception, and erosion of the Constitution. A decade of illegal wars, a decade of diminished expectations for our Country, a decade of bankruptcy for our Country, and, most of all, a decade where hope has been removed from most people in this Country.
What will it take? A Fascist Totalitarian Fright-Wing dictatorship that “removes” unsavory (not rich) elements from society (never to be heard from again)? How about a police state that spies on your every action from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you got to bed at night?
What would it take? A society so devoted to war and hegemony that literally every tax dollar collected is spent on war?
What would finally make the Fright-Wing happy? Somebody please tell me.
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:40 pm
Johnny Reb
“… that 80% are pro choice, whch is big difference vs 80% being for abortion. Even those who would never have an abortion don’t like the government telling them they can’t.”
Something neither “side” seems to be able to get through they pointy l’il haids…
Jm
October 27th, 2011
6:40 pm
Jay I could keep this up all night with congressional R’s that have voted for tax increases
They may not like it but they will do it
Dogma is bad. Gotta go, DJ is blowin my speakers up
JohnnyReb
October 27th, 2011
6:41 pm
AmVet – what did I miss. I went to the link you provided.
The debate on federally funding family planning clinics continues. We, the Right believe that a family planning clinic who also provides abortions cooks the books to show the federal money was not used for abortions but that either it really was or the clinic could not provide that service without the federal money – insufficient funding from elsewhere.
Jm
October 27th, 2011
6:42 pm
Perot
Parents are eeeeeeeevil
JohnnyReb
October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm
josef – my wife is conservative only slightly less than I. She is pro choice. I don’t agree with her, but don’t debate it with her. I’m pro choice – decide before you have sex.
Gordon
October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm
Soothsayer,
Here’s what it would take to make this right-winger happy.
Pay for our government. If attempted, you would be shocked at how high taxes would need to be for EVERYONE if we tried to keep what we have.
That’s it. Then our present might be less pleasant, but our children would have a future.
F. Sinkwich
October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm
I am very happy that our economy is growing, albeit slowly. I pray that this growth accelerates. A lot of our citizens are struggling, and I want the very best for them.
But Jay, to attribute this modest growth to your Messiah’s policies is absurd. O’bozo has done every thing he can to stifle economic growth through Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, EPA regulations, anti-energy policies, and crazy government spending.
It’s obvious to even the most casual observer that the economy grew (a little) because the conservative house of representatives in Congress has put a brake on the European socialist, nanny state initiatives embraced by O’bozo and his lib ilk acolytes.
Real people who actually create weath in this country see some gimmer of light at the end of this miserable toll road tunnel called O’bozo.
Job creators are beginning to exhibit some optimism that this Marxist in the White House will be evicted in January of 2012.
md
October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm
“Reb, did you see that 80% of Americans support abortion?”
Like to see where they got those numbers, because a google search comes up with numbers nowhere near 80% without the qualifier of an endangered mom.
F. Sinkwich
October 27th, 2011
6:46 pm
Oh, this is now an abortion blog.
My bad.
Dagmar Bigtats
October 27th, 2011
6:46 pm
Abort Jesus!
Kamchak
October 27th, 2011
6:46 pm
Ilk alert!
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:47 pm
Lib ilk alert!
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:49 pm
Johnny…
I tend to stay away from the question, myself…that’s a breeder problem!
K’chak…
Great minds….?
md
October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm
“I’m pro choice – decide before you have sex.”
Hear, hear…….says the guy that preaches choices……….
Abortion is the excuse, not the choice…………
jt
October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm
Stocks may be ‘up’ but the economy is definitely down.zThat is not hard to do when the dollar is worthless. Annualized GDP this year is aiming at sub-2% in the second year after supposed end of a mega-recession. Nothing normal and usual about that. Should have been a huge bounce. Never going to happen. Employment isn’t stuck, we’re treading water after a giant leg down that’s now structural. Middle class consumers are getting decimated with declining real incomes and rising costs: core GDP prices reported today show the increasing trend over the last 3 quarters.
This is just a small respite in the giant “Downsizing of America” that’s taking place under everyone’s noses and the Bookman’s of the world whistle.
Whay tune is it?
Substitute America with Dixie….and you’ll get what the statists have vomited forth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW3L8qon7hg
.
Theys blood in the streets of New Haven.biaches.
Rome’s burning ..literally.
Soothsayer
October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm
Dagmar, for all her “attributes,” reminded of something whose string had been pulled.
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm
Dagmar
I’d go for abortion wholeheartedly if we could make it retroactive in cases such as yours…
And besides, it’s “abort a gay whale for Christ…”
md
October 27th, 2011
6:51 pm
But let’s not get on abortion……that’s a never ending circle…….but most topics around here are.
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
6:51 pm
We, the Right believe that a family planning clinic who also provides abortions cooks the books to show the federal money was not used for abortions…
Is this belief based upon any evidence, data or facts?
I see Obama trying to divide Americans along lines of haves and have nots…
I think BHO is the first president to be in a completely untenable situation on this matter.
Unlike his predecessors he simply can no longer avoid the topic of the two Americas – or as you put it the haves and have nots.
As for the divide, my gawd it already exists in the most stark terms possible.
He did not create it. He is not exasperating it.
He, and everybody other sentient being, knows that the American middle class is beyond fed up and is finally no longer gonna roll over and play dead on this one. (Other than the most intransigent and self-destructive right wingers.)
But don’t kid yourself. His eloquence aside, there is no way in hell he will become a champion for us.
He is owned by the very ” corporations and monied interests” (hat tip Thomas Jefferson) that the protesters are sick of…
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
6:54 pm
“Some Belated Parental Advice to Protesters
Posted By Marybeth Hicks On October 19, 2011
Call it an occupational hazard but I can’t look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters without thinking, “Who parented these people?”
As a culture columnist, I’ve commented on the social and political ramifications of the “movement” – now known as “OWS” – whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: “Everything for everybody.”
Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it’s clear there are people with serious designs on “transformational” change in America who are using the protesters like bedsprings in a brothel.
Yet it’s not my role as a commentator that prompts my parenting question but rather the fact that I’m the mother of four teens and young adults. There are some crucial life lessons that the protesters’ moms clearly have not passed along.
Here, then, are five things the OWS protesters’ mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn’t, so I will:
• Life isn’t fair. The concept of justice – that everyone should be treated fairly – is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger [2] said, “You can’t always get what you want.”
No matter how you try to “level the playing field,” some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they’re dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance and some find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question.
• Nothing is “free.” Protesting with signs that seek “free” college degrees and “free” health care make you look like idiots because colleges and hospitals don’t operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and “slow paths” to adulthood and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical.
While I’m pointing out this obvious fact, here are a few other things that are not free: overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum.
• Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don’t require loans or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals. Also, for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization. It’s a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for – literally.
• A protest is not a party. On Saturday in New York, while making a mad dash from my cab to the door of my hotel to avoid you, I saw what isn’t evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations: Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a sober pursuit of social and political change don’t dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and you don’t seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant.
• There are reasons you haven’t found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn’t a virtue. Occupy reality: Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among that 4 percent, find a mirror and face the problem. It’s not them. It’s you.”
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:55 pm
jt
O-si-yo, U-wa-li! Interesting analogy there…I’ll have to think about that one…
Dagmar Bigtats
October 27th, 2011
6:56 pm
Condoms are for cowards!
F. Sinkwich
October 27th, 2011
6:56 pm
What’s fun about AmVet posts is they’re so nonsensical.
Like cotton candy, they have no substance.
Ross Perot
October 27th, 2011
6:56 pm
Are abortions really that expensive that the government should have to provide dollars for services for them? If they’re funding abortions they should fund dui’s too, both poor choices!
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:57 pm
Scout
Who parented them? We did. They’re ours, like it or not, but they’re ours…
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
6:57 pm
md:
I hear you. I believe in total reproductive rights also …………….. but after you have conceived you have already REPRODUCED !
The time for “choice” was before that before it involved another human being.
Jm
October 27th, 2011
6:57 pm
Josef
Curious as to your perspective on Chaz Bono
I gotta say I think it’s a little weird
Not that it shouldn’t be legal. I just find it…. Odd
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
6:58 pm
md,
you did bring up the 14 trillion dollar debt so I thought you must have had a reason for doing so such as discussing the house’s plan, Ryan’s plan.
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
6:58 pm
Aaaaaand, Fish Sandwich is back home from his work release program…
josef
October 27th, 2011
6:58 pm
Dagmar
You’re funny! Too bad looks aren’t everything…
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
6:59 pm
I see scout is not too receptive to the idea of defending his badmouthing of the war veterans in attendance at those occupy rallies.
F. Sinkwich
October 27th, 2011
6:59 pm
Yo, numbers, original content is appreciated.
Leave the c&p to Granny.
At least she gets paid by the DNC. She has no other marketable skills.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 27th, 2011
7:00 pm
“decide before you have sex”…. Right because all pregnancies are the result of consenual unprotected sex by parties who are able to comprehend the reality of their acts. Never a situation where birth control fails, where there is non-consensual sex, or where the person may not understand the consequences because they are a minor. We never treat minors differently than adults in our society. And of course, we always give them full sex education so that they are fully informed…..not just abstinence as the impractical solution.
josef
October 27th, 2011
7:01 pm
Jm
Yeah, I’m with you on that…far be it for me to go telling somebody they can’t, but I’m satisfied with the plumbing I was born with…
JohnnyReb
October 27th, 2011
7:01 pm
One more comment, then I’m signing off. Yes, there is troubling class divide. However, the answer is not to take more from those that have done well. The answer is to grow in such a way that the middle class prospers. Democratic/Obama policies don’t do that. Stipping wealth and redistributing it won’t last.
Jm
October 27th, 2011
7:03 pm
Scout
Great column
josef
October 27th, 2011
7:04 pm
good fight
@ 7:00
Which goes back to what I said to Johnny Reb about not getting certain things through their pointy l’il haids…still, though, I best not say anything more…in an all or nothing argument shades of gray are not very popular…
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
7:05 pm
I very seldom use the word, but Roe v Wade will never be overturned.
You ultra-reactionaries should save your ammo for fighting the Scopes Monkey Trial instead…
You need more voters…
Jm
October 27th, 2011
7:06 pm
Am vet
Re scopes monkey trial. U ever see “inherit the wind”?
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 27th, 2011
7:07 pm
josef, there is rarely “all or nothing” situation…… most of life is nuanced and shades of gray. We agree…. but that just don’t fit on the bumper sticker too easy does it
josef
October 27th, 2011
7:07 pm
ZamVet
Don’t forget, though, there were plenty who said the same thing about Plessy v Ferguson…and no I’m not “comparing” the two…jus sayin, never say never….
josef
October 27th, 2011
7:08 pm
good fight
“Doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker…”
And that’s sad….
josef
October 27th, 2011
7:10 pm
ZamVet
You need more voters? Five of nine is all that’s needed…
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
7:10 pm
According to a survey from the consulting firm Spectrem Group, sixty-eight percent of millionaires — defined as people with investments of $1 million or more — support raising taxes on people who earn $1 million or more in income, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Darn it!!! You mean it’s not just a Warren Buffett thingie. Republicans just keep on striking out on every single issue. No wonder they fall back on attacking gay rights and abortions and supporting guns everwhere except around them and declaring Muslims to be terrorists and trying to eliminate freedom of speech and such. That’s their core. The social issues supported by the party faithful. It’s all they’ve got.
md
October 27th, 2011
7:11 pm
“you did bring up the 14 trillion dollar debt so I thought you must have had a reason for doing so such as discussing the house’s plan, Ryan’s plan.”
I brought it up as a fact of the situation……a fact it seems the misfits prefer to dance around…..all of them.
Seems to me the longer “we” ignore it, the worse it will get…….a bit like all of us buying cheap crap from China then whining about out salaries………….
1811/0311
October 27th, 2011
7:13 pm
When you abandone your miitary training and discipline and appear with individuals or groups who advocate vilolence, disobey he law and city ordinances, provoke police confrontations and vilolate other’s rights ………… you sometime pay the consequences.
I saw it all the time on Okinawa (as a member of the shore patrol) and at Camp LeJeune (as a military policeman).
In he military is called the “10%” who never seem to get the word or get with the program.
He should have known better than to have been there.
Jm
October 27th, 2011
7:14 pm
Am vet 7:05
They’re expending all their energy staying focused on spending cuts and you guys criticize them endlessly for it
Trying to have it both ways are we?
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 27th, 2011
7:18 pm
Hmmmm Scout was not so concerned about the law earlier today….or on many other days. And do tell, its against the law to exercise your constitutional right to free speech and assembly? Thankfully many other people and vets believe that it is offensive that the police overreacted and attacked with brutal force. I bet the military did not teach you to lie like that Scout.
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
7:19 pm
Several times, jm.
My favorite line from that watershed trial:
We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the educational system of the United States. ~Clarence Darrow
Jm
October 27th, 2011
7:22 pm
Am vet
That movie is probably my favorite of all time
Spencer Tracey is awesome in it and so much great symbolism, all the way to the end
I pull a line or two from there on occasion, including one I apply to jay: the job of journalists is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”
Jay
October 27th, 2011
7:23 pm
“Jay I could keep this up all night with congressional R’s that have voted for tax increases”
No, jm, you could not. You haven’t even started a list yet. For example, you just cited Boehner, I believe?
This Boehner:
“WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — House Speaker John Boehner drew a line in the sand on taxes on Thursday, saying that a special debt committee tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from federal deficits shouldn’t consider tax hikes.
“Tax increases, I think, are off the table,” Boehner said in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C….”
Your dilemma is pretty obvious.
You know that a responsible political party must be willing to accept tax hikes as part of a budget deal. And you badly want to keep believing that the GOP is a responsible political party. Thus, you’re forced to try to pretend to believe what you know not to be true, and to offer ridiculous arguments to defend that pretense.
In other words, the dissonance between what you need to be true and what you know to be true is forcing you to make a fool of yourself.
But hey, don’t let me get in your way. You just go right on claiming up is down and black is white.
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
7:27 pm
When you abandone your miitary training and discipline and appear with individuals or groups who advocate vilolence, disobey he law and city ordinances, provoke police confrontations and vilolate other’s rights ………… you sometime pay the consequences.
So, I assume you have evidence supporting that contention that the war veterans at the occupy rallies are indeed law breakers or that they have abandoned anything at all except perhaps you. Uh huh. You are not really a veteran, are you, scout.
Jm
October 27th, 2011
7:28 pm
Jay 7:23
I’m ok with a 2 step process
Cut spending now. Raise taxes later.
It’s a question of scale
I find it comical Dems are trying to put stimulus into this when it is supposed to be deficit REDUCTION
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
7:30 pm
The proposed Republican spending cuts are absurdly tiny.
The scenario is this – the Boehner household spends over $20,000 more than they take in every year.
And his proposed spending cuts?
$458 per year.
At least Panetta is trying to get passed a non-laughable (albeit still way too small IMO) decrease in the bloated, hyper-corrupted and wasteful Pentagon budget…
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
7:30 pm
Hmmmm Scout was not so concerned about the law earlier today….or on many other days.
He was all winkie winkie about how to get around any laws that he must not have agreed with himself, wasn’t he.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 27th, 2011
7:33 pm
Taxpayer…and he certainly has informed us a number of times of “rubber hose” type interrogations techniques or other unlawful acts…nudge, nudge…. why there was even his “joke” about firing everyone in a company whose car had an Obama bumper sticker. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
But then protestors that he does not like… Mr. Law and Order…. even if those laws and orders may not be lawful or constitutional.
Jay
October 27th, 2011
7:35 pm
No, jm, it’s a question of persistent self-delusion. Forced into a choice between altering your viewpoint and altering reality, you have chosen to try to alter reality.
Good luck with that.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 27th, 2011
7:38 pm
Nice that the Oakland Police “removed” a purported health hazard by injuring and attacking non-violent protestors….. “Your kitchen does not meet code, flashbang to the head”.
Dagmar Bigtats
October 27th, 2011
7:38 pm
Josef,
I’d prefer if your lil’ petulant petunia pickle bottom not address my brilliant posts.
Fast and Furious Spending
October 27th, 2011
7:40 pm
Focusing on Bush. Luckovich did the same thing in his cartoon I just saw.
Pathetic.
As everyone knows the GDP numbers for Obama, just as the employment figures, just as consumer spending, and just as the economic forecasts, these numbers will be revised downward. Inflation will continue to increase, cutting into the size and increase of GDP in real numbers, fuel prices will continue to rise, healthcare costs, food, and any number of costs related to living here, including ironically, college.
Why was Wall Street so happy today? Because the EU decided to print money to keep the Wall Streeters happy. That’s it! This is not an economic recovery. This is a campaign to try and salvage the unending bus-campaign of one Barack Obama by “reassuring” the American public that everything is not nearly as bad as their own lives, their own job prospects and their own friends and families tell them it is.
Oughtn’t we look at the states where economic activity is tangibly and actually growing? Texas and other energy producing states?
No, this is just for you, Barry, and your increasingly desperate campaign.
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
7:41 pm
I don’t recall Dagmar ever having such a nasty disposition on camera.
Mark in mid-town
October 27th, 2011
7:41 pm
Don’t be misled by Jay. A 2.5% GDP growth rate with a base unemployment rate of over 9% (really much higher when factoring in lower work force participation rate), this long into a supposed recovery — is far worse than 1.85% GDP growth when the unemployment rate is 4% (with much higher workforce participation rate) ) at the end of an historically high economic growth cycle. The only thing good that can be said about the 2.5% reading is that so many feared we were in another recession. A 2.5% rate shows we aren’t. Of course, the 2.5% is the initial reading. It will be revised a couple of times over the next 2 months. The fact that new initial unemployment claims are still above the 400,000 per week range shows that the economy is not even remotely close to performing well.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 27th, 2011
7:42 pm
petunia? a rose by another name still smells sweet? Who has been sniffing?
AmVet
October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm
Gentlemen, my only reason for asking the ex-marine that question was for him to publicly state his opinion.
And though I find his answer particularly loathsome and exceptionally un-Christianlike, I support his right to state it.
Jm
October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm
Jay
Im not deluding myself when CERTAIN members of the republican party HAVE voted for tax increases
The problem is, a majority will vote for spending cuts.
And a majority will vote for tax increases (mostly Dems)
BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME because the majorities are different
Ergo, they should break it up
Jay, when u start accusing me of delusion, you begin looking like you’re losing the argument….
No offense intended
josef
October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm
Dagmar
Aw, why…don’t want the competition in drive-by half-witticisms?
willie lynch
October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm
Joe The Plumber too.
October 27th, 2011
5:35 pm
Just a response to your post Joe.
The Chosen One
October 27th, 2011
7:46 pm
“from the bottom of my heart, I say, kiss my ass!”.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
October 27th, 2011
7:47 pm
AmVet, I have no problem with his right to state it. Free speech does not mean that I do not have the right to criticize it, condemn it, demonstrate its ignorance, its falsity or the lack of character of the speaker…..but I will join you in defending his right to make his statement. I’ll even defend his right to protest and assemble even though he would likely attempt to deny mine if he was not in agreement.
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
7:47 pm
And though I find his answer particularly loathsome and exceptionally un-Christianlike, I support his right to state it.
And I support my right to challenge his comments.
Buck Hayek
October 27th, 2011
7:47 pm
Not only was Bush’s 2% GDP anemic, how much of it was due to the increase in federal spending from $1.8 trillion to $3.5 trillion? (CBO figures)
Any way you cut it his tax cuts were a failure.
josef
October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm
getalife
A petunian by any other name? How many does that Friday t*rd at a Saturday market have, anyway?
Kamchak
October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm
As everyone knows the…
This crap again?
What is this preoccupation of people thinking they can speak for “everyone” today?
Are the arguments so lame that an appeal to the unanimous consent of people that they don’t have the authority to speak for is required?
Fast and Furious Spending
October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm
Jay @ 735,
Altering your viewpoint?
I must point out you know absolutely nothing about doing this, Jay. Your insistence on revenue increases is the case in point. There isn’t enough revenue to be generated to spend the way Washington and its out-of-control gaping maw of entitlement-spending. The whole idea that those who can not provide for themselves can successfully choose someone to do for them is being disproven every single day before our eyes.
The whole purpose of the tea party is the alteration of viewpoint based on this single and undeniable understanding of reality.
You “merry skunks”, like Luckavich prefer to cavort with past opinions, proven mediocre and unavailing, like Bush doing this or that, which Obama later had to fix–”this mess we’re in”.
I dare say that you don’t even waver from the President’s own point of view but swallow the whole shebang, hook, line and sinker. We can tell this because you don’t dare ever criticize HIM.
TaxPayer
October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm
“from the bottom of my heart, I say, kiss my ass!”.
Your heart have a sinking feeling in it. It sounds kinda bottomed out to me.
Dagmar Bigtats
October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm
Josef,
Do you mind if I call you JoJo? I apologize for being obtuse. My body done gone haywire. I’m ovulating and lactating……
Jm
October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm
Am vet
Spencer Tracey is an awesome actor……. Awwwwweeesome
Jay
October 27th, 2011
7:49 pm
Right jm.
Anybody else here believe that the Republicans are ready to raise taxes as part of a deficit-reduction deal?
Anybody?
Fast and Furious Spending
October 27th, 2011
7:49 pm
Buck @ 747,
9+% unemployment.