Montegue:
Since you obviously didn't read or listen to the State of the Union Address, here's the play by play breakdown of your Glorious Leader's failure.
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One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by a severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted -- immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.
No, it has not. The United States is still in a liquidity crisis and pursuing bad economic policy. Foreclosures continue rise month to month, growth statements are falsified, as you will note that the 0.7% Growth in October has been revised downward 3 times, to a 0.2% loss in January. More importantly, unemployment continues rise as the labor force contracts. The BLS is overtly manipulating workforce numbers, such that people still on unemployment are filtered into the discouraged workers count after 4 weeks of collecting benefits. Conservative estimates of the underemployed account for 20% of the total work force, while real unemployment is pushing 20% nation wide (and higher in some areas). The Savings Rate is being attacked by government policies, such as Cash for Clunkers, while real capital generation is still negative. The fallout from Commercial and Industrial real estate financing is just beginning. The stimulus package failed.
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For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry. They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded, but hard work on Main Street isn't; or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems. They're tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. They know we can't afford it. Not now.
Here is the first time he blames partisanship, but the implication is that it is not his fault. Operating with a 60 vote Super Majority in the Senate and a solid majority in the House, nothing legislatively prevented Obama from enacting every policy decision he wanted to enact. Yet, it didn't happen. So is it partisanship when his own party doesn't support his policies? It's not his fault for proposing policies that legislators and the public would not support? Whose fault is it? Where does the responsibility go for such things? Obama doesn't think it belongs to him, as the rest of the speech evidences.
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Our most urgent task upon taking office was to shore up the same banks that helped cause this crisis. It was not easy to do. And if there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, and everybody in between, it's that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it. I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal.
And, yet, President Obama fails to mention that the banks paid back their loans with interest. And he blames the banks for a systemic failure of economic policy at the government level. Government manipulation of financial industry created the demand for Collateralized Debt Obligations. The Federal Reserve Board is not blameless, nor, for that matter, is the SEC. So, once again, the problems are someone else's fault, but not the government's. And he has no hand in the blame right, despite voting for TARP? I wonder why he hated something he voted for ... if it was so odious at the time, then why did he vote Yes? Why did he disburse the funds? And where's the mention about him threatening those banks with more taxes and more fines and more fees for doing their due diligence and paying back the tax payers money? Where's the honesty about the cash sink that is General Motors or the tax-payer dollars lost in the dismantling of Chrysler? This is the President not taking responsibility for his actions and his policies.
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So I supported the last administration's efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took that program over, we made it more transparent and more accountable. And as a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we've recovered most of the money we spent on the banks. Most but not all.
To recover the rest, I've proposed a fee on the biggest banks. Now, I know Wall Street isn't keen on this idea. But if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.
And now it's a fee? They can pay a fee for being bailed out, even though they paid interest in the first place? We can punish them more for being private business? What business of his is it how compensation packages work in the private sector? Incidentally, the industry is neither more accountable nor more transparent. All of the sector reforms have failed pass or failed to appear for vote and approval in either house of Congress. How can he take credit for something that has not happened?
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That's why we extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans, made health insurance 65 percent cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA and passed 25 different tax cuts.
Now, let me repeat: We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.
What tax cuts? Wait, aren't tax cuts bad? And here he outright lies. He didn't cut any taxes. He didn't extend any tax cuts; unless, of course, you count letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire in due course as cutting taxes. And Tax Credits are not tax cuts. No, this is just a fabrication; it is an outright lie to attempt to make good on a promise he hasn't kept. Good LEADERS do not need to lie to their people.
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As a result, millions of Americans had more to spend on gas and food and other necessities, all of which helped businesses keep more workers. And we haven't raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime.
And this is also false. Capitals Gains Taxes are taxes on income generated from the capitalization of investments. Capitals Gains Taxes have been altered and risen. The highest marginal tax bracket was raised to 39.6% from 35.0%. I guess people who make more than $129,000 a year are not persons or people. But, I guess it's ok for the President to lie to the American people and Congress. Real leadership would be Nancy Pelosi holding him in contempt of Congress for this tripe.
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Because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. Two hundred thousand work in construction and clean energy, 300,000 are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, first responders. And we're on track to add another one-and-a-half-million jobs to this total by the end of the year.
And then, after all the controversy over how we was tracking "jobs saved" and "jobs created", he highballs numbers already proven to be false and inflated? When is this "Leader" going to stop lying to me? When is he going to stop "misrepresenting" the reality of his first year in office? Why doesn't he get up and say, "I have failed this Country as its President?"
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The plan that has made all of this possible, from the tax cuts to the jobs, is the Recovery Act. That's right -- the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus bill. Economists on the left and the right say this bill has helped save jobs and avert disaster. But you don't have to take their word for it. Talk to the small business in Phoenix that will triple its work force because of the Recovery Act. Talk to the window manufacturer in Philadelphia who said he used to be skeptical about the Recovery Act, until he had to add two more work shifts just because of the business it created. Talk to the single teacher raising two kids who was told by her principal in the last week of school that because of the Recovery Act, she wouldn't be laid off after all.
There are stories like this all across America. And after two years of recession, the economy is growing again. Retirement funds have started to gain back some of their value. Businesses are beginning to invest again, and slowly some are starting to hire again.
And now we have unverifiable anecdotes followed by a claim of job growth? Really? After the worst December in 40 years, he's claiming job growth? You know, the December where permanent jobs lost exceeded temporary seasonal hires by 185,000?
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We should start where most new jobs do -- in small businesses, companies that begin when -- companies that begin when an entrepreneur -- when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides it's time she became her own boss. Through sheer grit and determination, these companies have weathered the recession, and they're ready to grow. But when you talk to small business owners in places like Allentown, Pa., or Elyria, Ohio, you find out that even though banks on Wall Street are lending again, they're mostly lending to bigger companies. Financing remains difficult for small business owners across the country, even those that are making a profit.
And then he gets foolish. They need more credit? We're in a Depression caused by a black hole of a liquidity crisis and the problem is contracted credit? Businesses are struggling to rebuild real capital and equity, but the solution is more loans? Now he's just getting laughable. A real Leader, Montegue, would know better than to suggest the hair of the dog as the cure for our financial woes.
[more in a post or two]...
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