Obama flops with ‘private sector is doing fine’
Oh, boy. President Obama and his supporters will be hearing this line for a while:
“The private sector is doing fine.”
Obama made that remark during a press briefing today about the U.S. and European economies. Now, he and his supporters will almost certainly counter that the line is being taken out of context. Via ABC News’ Jake Tapper, here is that context:
“We’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last … 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone,” the president said, “the private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don’t have the same kind of flexibility of the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.”
Michael Scherer of Time notes that Obama and the Democrats did not give John McCain the same benefit of context when they pilloried him for his September 2008, mid-financial-panic comment, “… the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” So, to a large degree, turnabout will be fair play.
But let’s give the president the benefit of context. Is he right that the “weakness in our economy” is that Washington isn’t bailing out state and local governments fast enough?
Obama cast the private sector’s alleged strength in the terms of job growth. So, let’s look at that on the public-sector side.
For starters, let’s consider that the states and locals that are cutting jobs, where they are cutting them, because they don’t have the money to fund them. With annual deficits over $1 trillion a year, Washington doesn’t have the money to fund them, either. What Obama is proposing is to borrow more money from China to pay for civil servants in Sacramento (data for April, the latest available state-by-state, show almost a quarter of government job losses were in California).
But even if one is prepared to go along with this bailout, is it really the cure for what’s ailing us?
Federal data for last month show state and local government employment fell by 111,000, or 0.58 percent, from May 2011. Had those 111,000 people still been in their jobs — and here we’re going to give Obama the benefit of the doubt and assume none of them found employment elsewhere, which is a rather big assumption — the nation’s employment level would have been 0.08 percent higher. The national unemployment rate would have been 8.1 percent, instead of the actual rate of …
… wait for it …
… 8.2 percent.
For those 111,000 people and their families, those layoffs were undoubtedly terrible. But as an explanation for the “weakness in our economy,” and as a possible target for efforts to spur economic growth, the reduction of state and local government employment is a complete nonstarter.
Next excuse?
– By Kyle Wingfield
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266 comments Add your comment
MarkV
June 10th, 2012
7:59 am
Get Real @11:38 pm
If you want to add to the stupidities of md, keep writing.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 10th, 2012
8:04 am
‘Obama Girl’ won’t endorse Obama!
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-girl-not-excited-2012-won-t-endorse-193610215.html
If obozo loses the bimbo vote, he’s lost the dummycrat party.
ragnar danneskjold
June 10th, 2012
8:39 am
Much good discussion over the proper role of government in a free society. I would not contradict anything in the great Higgs quote I posted around 1 PM yesterday, but I always liked Hayek’s perspective: that government’s sole legitimate role in “market control” is
(1) to punish actual fraud – malicious trickery – and
(2) to punish collusion among businessmen – a “fraud” on the market.
Any other effort by government amounts to unnecessary constriction of market access, which mostly benefits those already in the market.
@@
June 10th, 2012
8:48 am
WASHINGTON — When it comes to saving energy, people in the United States know that driving a fuel-efficient car accomplishes more than turning off the lights at home.
But that doesn’t mean they’ll do it.
A new poll shows that while most of those questioned understand effective ways to save energy, they have a hard time adopting them.
Six in 10 surveyed say driving a more fuel-efficient car would save a large amount of energy, but only 1 in 4 says that’s easy to do, according to the poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. People also are skeptical of carpooling or installing better home insulation, rating them as effective but impractical.
This administration is out of touch with the American voter.
MarkV:
If you cannot argue seriously, I have nothing to discuss with you.
If only you could keep that promise.
You arguing for argument’s sake has become quite boring for people like me.
Nothing personal, mind you.
schnirt
MarkV
June 10th, 2012
9:01 am
@@ 8:48 am
My post at 7:59 am applies to you as well.
@@
June 10th, 2012
9:07 am
MarkV:
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
what love got to do w/it
June 10th, 2012
9:26 am
President Obama must think every dollar the U.S. is getting to bail out, are donates or some type of gifts. Wake up…
SheeshLouise
June 10th, 2012
9:27 am
No Kyle, YOU just FLOPPED with trying to spin the statement for political purposes. You guys are pitiful. The U.S. will go down because of its hyper-polarization, shelving and of logic, reason and common sense, and the never ending desire of one political party to make the next look stupid at ALL costs. Anyone with HALF a brain well knows that what Obama said was the truth. Specifically what he was referring to is the fact that corporations are sitting on over $4 TRILLION (I believe it is) in PROFITS and are not spending a dime of it. The stock market is at also super high levels and holding, so investment in those companies is also very strong. What more evidence do you need? Of course, because the U.S. citizenry is so dumb and carnivorous in its desire for “red meat” he has to for political purposes “walk it back” as everyone likes to say, to make it go down smoother. He runs the risk of losing a voter who might be brainwashed by the resulting drivel from those like you Kyle.. Let’s all just stop pretending. Pitiful.
Dr. Pangloss
June 10th, 2012
9:35 am
The big corporations are posting record profits.
An article in today’s Atlantic Monthly says that the US had 111 million private sector jobs in January of 2009. We’re now back to 111 million private sector jobs. The job loss is in those evil public sector jobs.
So you could say the economy is starting to perk along.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 10th, 2012
9:47 am
“MarkV…..I been reading all your posts; do you even live on this planet or in some parallel universe where free lunches exist for everyone….”
Does this question even need to be asked?
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 10th, 2012
9:50 am
“So you could say the economy is starting to perk along.”
Or you could say that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus is real.
But all three would be figments of your imagination, Dr. Pangloss.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 10th, 2012
10:34 am
I love it–the libtards on the one hand have a desperate need to defend their Idiot Obozo’s claim that the private sector is doing just fine, and on the other hand they have this inbred (in every sense) need to claim that eeeevil corporations are wrecking the economy.
Which is it, haters?
Samantha
June 10th, 2012
10:42 am
If George Bush had said somehting this dumd and this insensitive, the press would have crucified him. Instead our so called “mainstream media” is quiet as death. Les Moonves from CBS finally admitted this week that the press was politically partisan. Their non-handling of Obama’s ridiculous assertion that the private sector of our economy is fine just another bit of evidence.
I wonder of Obama read the headline that said “Home prices plunge again” or if he knows that the level of discouraged workers is at an all time high. Or maybe he forgot that our labor participation rate is an all time low. Or perhaps that teen employment has never been lower.
Can we call him President Clueless?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 10th, 2012
10:44 am
Please, just call him “Clueless”…using the P-word just reminds Americans of the huge mistake they made in 2008.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 10th, 2012
11:02 am
The reality is that Obama was comparing the private sector to the public sector, and while he used a poor choice of words, he’s just as responsible for saying them as McCain was his “fundamentally sound” comment in 2008.
As some of his defenders on this site have postulated, he probably meant to say “better than the public sector”, and while that statement (if made) might have had some truth to it, it really has no bearing on the economy.
The bottom-line in all of this remains that many state and local governments continue to look to Washington to bail them out of bad fiscal decisions and situations of their own making. As was predicted by many when the stimulus first came out, the funds were going to run out right about now, and that has been proven true. And yes, I AM saying “I told you so”.
So in 2 years, local governments didn’t learn nor do a thing about their situations, and are looking for handouts again, and they aren’t coming.
It is their turn to deal with the mess they made. Not the rest of us or our great-grandchildren who will have to pay for this disaster of a President’s policies.
John
June 10th, 2012
11:20 am
We have the government and society we deserve.
Get Real
June 10th, 2012
11:40 am
MarkV…..just making an observation regarding your thought process…..feel free to continue being a douche bag…..seems you have honed your skills over a lifetime…
Rafe Hollister
June 10th, 2012
11:41 am
We have the government and society we deserve.
Maybe you do John, but I deserve and expect better. I voted for better candidates than we have representing us now.
Get Real
June 10th, 2012
11:44 am
Tiberius….you are spot on although some state and local governments did learn, sadly most did not…
tiredofIT
June 10th, 2012
11:44 am
“You libs really are economically retarded.” Fall of 2008 the economy is crashing losing 750,000 job a month. You “cons” are economically retarded, not to mention you have selective memory loss!
tripledart
June 10th, 2012
12:31 pm
What is gonna happen when Obama losses by 11 percent in the election.Is the race card gonna be thrown again.And yes Maxine Waters convicted and Eric Holder ass thrown in jail.Most of all David
Axelrod jumps off a cliff.Can’t wait till fall
md
June 10th, 2012
1:25 pm
Mark does serve a purpose…..he allows others to understand the entitlement mentality fostered by a society that “requires” a bigger gov’t…….he displays the basic underlying fundamentals at the core of differing ideologies……that the individual is capable of managing oneself or must be managed by a greater power…..in this case, “government”.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 10th, 2012
2:18 pm
md, I have no problem with government having a role in people’s lies, as long as that role is limited to protecting people from those who would take another’s life, liberty or property through the use of force or fraud.
MaryV just thinks we all need a lot more protection than many of us are willing to accept, and she doesn’t mind giving up her freedoms so that she can retain control over someone else through that government, even if that someone else isn’t hurting anyone with their actions.
MarkV
June 10th, 2012
2:39 pm
Get Real @11:40 am
Thank you for making abundantly clear that you do not have any rational thoughts, only the ability to write insults and stupidities.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 10th, 2012
2:40 pm
tiredofIT, even with the job losses that occurred as a result of the Dodd-Frank “roll the dice” housing/finance disaster, Our President Bush’s record on jobs is vastly superior to Moron Obozo. According the the Bureau of Labor Statistics, here are the number of jobs in the U.S. in January of the following years:
2001: 132 million (Our President Bush inaugurated)
2009: 134 million (Our President Bush leaves office/Obozo inaugurated)
2012: 132 million
Our President Bush created two million jobs. Obozo destroyed them.
Obozo: Failure.
Obozo receptacles: Ignorant.
md
June 10th, 2012
3:27 pm
“md, I have no problem with government having a role in people’s lies, as long as that role is limited to protecting people from those who would take another’s life, liberty or property through the use of force or fraud.”
Nor do I, but I prefer to limit that role to as little as necessary…….case in point the DOE…..established 40+ years ago to ween us off foreign oil……mission never accomplished and big bucks spent doing it.
getalife
June 10th, 2012
3:39 pm
Stay the course on job growth not austerity.
Not a good time to change leadership.
We need to keep the adults in charge
getalife
June 10th, 2012
3:44 pm
They are doing better than ever.
They don’t need your help, they have the politicians.
What happens when they control all the wealth?
md
June 10th, 2012
3:50 pm
“Stay the course on job growth not austerity.”
And at this rate, I’d hate to be the last guy hired…….20 million to work through first.
OBIWAN
June 10th, 2012
4:15 pm
But Obozo is so smart, just look at his school records, oh wait he had the sealed…
@@
June 10th, 2012
4:30 pm
FYI!
If you’ve ever been stuck having to buy something with a $50 or $100 bill in the last decade, you’ve probably had to stand there while a store clerk performs the marker test to see if the note is legitimate. Unfortunately, that test doesn’t work on older bills.
A local jury just won some guy a settlement because of ^^^ that. Not only did he sit in jail for 31 hours…he lost his job as a result. Once everything got straightened out, his job was no longer available.
Why doesn’t law enforcement know to look at the date before acting too hastily.
Take those older bills to the bank and exchange them for newer currency.
Rafe Hollister
June 10th, 2012
5:17 pm
@@
I’m surprised that people still use those large denominations, it is hard to find a clerk, who can accurately make change anymore. Most of our public school graduates have a hard time counting to 100.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 10th, 2012
5:37 pm
Counterfeiting is one of the few growth industries under the obozo administration, that and food stamp counselor.
If we could just stop the marker test from being performed, the unemployment rate wouldn’t matter anymore!
Hillbilly D
June 10th, 2012
5:52 pm
“That evening before he went to have supper, he’d go back to the hospital to see his patients again. They don’t do that anymore. Matter of fact, the patient sees a hospitalist when they’re admitted now, not their personal doctor. That would be hard for me — to know that my patient was in the hospital and I couldn’t make orders for their care.”
They don’t make ‘em like this guy, anymore.
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/199/article/68603/
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 10th, 2012
6:08 pm
If we stay the course on job growth we’ll have fewer jobs.
Fix the problem in November. Fire the Marxist. Hire the real American.
SheeshLouise
June 10th, 2012
6:25 pm
@Lil Barry.
You know, you are a pitiful person. You can never come on any of these blogs without displaying your sick obsession and disrespect for the POTUS, with all your juvenile insults. What’s the matter, Obama put his “big stick” in your mouth or something once? You sure as hell act like it. Maybe that’s what you need. Racist b@stard. Do I care about being “banned” because Kyle will likely take a “self-righteous indignation” with what I said, while TOTALLY approving of the BS you spew on his blog daily? HELL no!
Hillbilly D
June 10th, 2012
6:31 pm
f you’ve ever been stuck having to buy something with a $50 or $100 bill in the last decade, you’ve probably had to stand there while a store clerk performs the marker test to see if the note is legitimate.
They do that with $20s, in my neck of the woods.
grated
June 10th, 2012
6:33 pm
Obama really did make a grevious gaffe. He opened his mouth in response to an exploratory Romney thrust and just waded in as deep as you can – step by step; inch by inch. Then, four hours later he went full awkward moment. It’s not over, but now it’s Romney’s election to lose. This is exactly why “it’s the economy stupid” was so effective. Remember Bush Sr’s photo-flop oblivion over the new fangled grocery check out laser thingies. It’s not what you say, it’s how well your opponent can cash in on your gaffes. Gaffes are inevitable. No amount of briefing can prevent them. You just stumble upon them. Open mouth. Insert latest exorbitant Nike shoe.
So we end up with the war machine back in power, and any debt remedy will certainly be used to destroy some unsuspecting country’s infrastructure and then, of course, to rebuild it.
And America crumbles piece by piece, bridge by bridge, sewer by sewer. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Change means Same.
Same old Change.
@@
June 10th, 2012
6:38 pm
Obama put his “big stick” in your mouth or something once?
Is SheeshLouise implying that Obama’s gay?
Well, I nevah…
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
June 10th, 2012
6:41 pm
Hire the real American.
Bithers.
Rafe Hollister
June 10th, 2012
6:47 pm
What is are bithers? Lil Barry, have you bit hers.
Get Real
June 10th, 2012
6:48 pm
MarkV…thanks for proving my point…the prosecution rests
@@
June 10th, 2012
6:50 pm
Obama to Emphasize Rural America in Interviews, Report Tomorrow
Where people cling to their guns, religion, antipathy towards…blah…blah…blah?
MarkV
June 10th, 2012
6:51 pm
SheeshLouise @ 6:25 pm
It is best to ignore the verbal excrements of the obscene clown who pollutes the blog under the moniker Lil Barry.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
June 10th, 2012
6:57 pm
What is are bithers?
Typo, my bad.
Birthers.
@@
June 10th, 2012
7:02 pm
You know, you are a pitiful person. You can never come on any of these blogs without displaying your sick obsession and disrespect for the POTUS, with all your juvenile insults.
Post your best anti-Bush insults, tirades, epithets, and screeds! @ DemocraticUnderground.
Pitiful…JUST pi-ti-ful.
schnirt
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 10th, 2012
7:08 pm
SheeshLouise: Racist b@stard
—————————
Feel free to repost anything I’ve said that’s racist.
We’ll just cue the chirping crickets now.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 10th, 2012
7:09 pm
Kamchak: Birthers.
——————-
If you had been paying attention, you would know that I was not among the birthers.
That said, there’s more to being an American than mere citizenship.
Obozo is not American.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
June 10th, 2012
7:14 pm
If you had been paying attention, you would know that I was not among the birthers.
Educated people are aware of something called “inference”.
Open mouth, insert foot, chew vigorously.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 10th, 2012
7:16 pm
Sorry, Kamchak, but I’m on record long ago of being of the opinion that Obozo was a citizen.
You infer incorrectly.
I guess the opened mouth would be yours.