Posted on 05/30/2011 10:28:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
The question that ended the last malaise comes back to haunt us now.
On October 28, 1980, President Ronald Reagan looked into the camera for closing remarks during his last debate with Jimmy Carter and said:
Next Tuesday is election day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls. You will stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision it might be well if you ask yourself, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
While I don’t know what went through the minds of the millions of television viewers who heard Reagan ask that question that night, by the time they entered the voting booth a week later a clear majority of them had decided the answer to Reagan’s question was: “No, we are not better off.” The results of the presidential election of 1980 proved that Reagan had done a masterful job of drawing attention to the disaster Carter wrought upon our economy, our military, our energy supplies, our national morale, and on and on.
And though we’re just over halfway through President Obama’s first term in office, it seems all Americans should ask themselves if we’re better off now than we were two years ago.
The answer is just as straightforward: No, we’re not. Unemployment is at 9% and our national debt is over $14,000,000,000,000. According to Reuters, our floundering economy is only poised to get worse. Obama’s answer to the unemployment and incomprehensible debt is to raise taxes to the tune of $2 trillion: that’s “$1 trillion in new taxes on wealthier Americans (and small businesses)” and another trillion sought “in higher tax revenues by reducing tax breaks and subsidies.”
Gasoline, which was $1.81 a gallon when Obama took office, has jumped to over $4 more than once. (It’s now hovering around $3.70.) Throughout this more than 100% jump in gasoline prices, Obama maintained his offshore drilling moratorium and prevented us from drilling for more oil in the western states and Alaska.
Obama’s arrogance is so great that when a citizen asked him how average Americans were supposed to make ends meet with gas prices so high, Obama simply “suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle.”
We don’t even have to revisit Obama’s quasi-government takeovers of GM, Chrysler, and a myriad of banking institutions to understand why our national morale is low. It’s so low, in fact, that columnists and bloggers grasping for a suitable analogy now compare today’s political and social climate to the malaise we endured under Carter.
And if you think the comparison to the Carter years is a stretch, just consider the irony of one of the other questions Reagan asked as he looked into that camera in 1980:
Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the store than it was four years ago?
Well? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the store than it was two years ago?
Reagan wanted the people listening to him to know that it was time to make a choice: that America faced a perilous future unless we changed course at that moment in time. And I dare say we will face an even more dire future now than we would have then, if we don’t determine to change our course in 2012.
Not better ... Not worse....
Kind of in a holding pattern. I see darkness on the horizon though.
Hell No! Obama was just getting started.
I’m still waiting for my hopeychangey unicorn..
Financially.....big time. sad the the country has lost its morals.....big time.
It's a trap! It's a trap!
That's not skittles and candy coming out of its' butt!!!
Actually yes. But it’s got nothing to do with Obie, I picked well when I landed at this job in ‘02 and things are riding out very nicely.
You must be on LSD to receive your Unicorn. Libturds live in an altered state of reality.
Nope
One thing you can say about Carter, you never heard
"it's Ford's fault"
At one time I didn’t think it possible to out do Carter as the worst President in recent memory. But, Obama has removed all doubt. It must be a relief to Pres. Carter to be supplanted from such a notorious position, in his lifetime no less.
It’s recession when your neighbor loses his job.
It’s a depression when you lose your job.
And it’s a recovery when Obama loses his.
(Borrowed from Reagan campaign slogan regarding Carter.)
I keep asking my liberal friends (who are all Obama true believers) just what has Obama done during his term that has benefitted them in some way? How much better is their life under his administration than it was before? All I get is how it’s going to take a lot of time for Obama to fix all the bad things Bush did during his two terms — that I and others haven’t given Obama enough time. A few might mention “health care reform,” but if you press further, you find out they really don’t know anything about it. Most just can’t give a straight answer. Probably because they know I know the answer and they don’t want to admit they were wrong.
“Are You Better Off Now Than You Were Two Years Ago?”
LOL. I was better off this morning before I went to town than I am now. Every time I buy gas and/or food I become poorer.
Four more years of this idiot and the ‘and/or’ might become an option.
I was better off in 1980 than I was two years ago and I was better off two years ago than I am now. This is the worst off I’ve ever been in all my many years.
Less costs more, and we have less, so there is definitely a downward spiral going on with the economy. Still, I feel lucky, because there are hundreds of thousands more people who have gone from something to nothing.
How much more can Islamic terrorism win once it has made us trade our liberty for false security? Welcome to the police state. Is there a way out of it?
Your lib friends can’t answer because they’re just as clueless today as they were two years ago.
I looked at the misery index yesterday. It’s trending up. At the present rate, we’ll hit Carter-era levels in a month or two. (Some argue we’re already there, accounting for changes in the measurement of inflation since Carter.)
“I don’t know any liberal obama supporters who will admit they were wrong.”
***
You’re right, but it is amusing sometimes to watch them stammer, spin or change the subject. I guess they haven’t received orders from the MSM, Huffington Post or whoever on what the official response should be.
We are trending sharply into socialism. We have betrayed Israel and God is not pleased. Obama has stopped much of our drilling, for oil, and he gave monies to South America to drill off shore there, and to build a new refinery; yet we can not do that here. h
We are very like Russia was after their revolution. THIS IS BAD! Read "Dr Zhivago," or at least watch the movie.
Our government is suing Arizona. Immigration is wide open. We can not absorb so many so fast. Smart meters are so the government can decide how much power we can have and they will cut us off with that amount despite the face it may be inadequate. Obama told us already we do not get to have 74 degrees in the summer or 65 degrees in the winter.
America is sitting passively and our nation is coming apart before our eyes. True.
I fear collapse and the tyranny and totalitarianism of the One World Government. Nearly 48% of the people, are on welfare. When it increases a bit they will have the majority, and they will vote for all things socialist. or communist.
God help us in this time and day, in Jesus name, amen
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