Posted on 07/07/2012 6:14:31 AM PDT by no dems
Obama needed a filet mignon in the June employment report. But instead he got a rubber chicken.
Only 80,000 new jobs were created last month, way below Wall Street expectations. It’s the fourth consecutive monthly disappointment. For a few months last winter, jobs were rising at an average of 225,000 a month. But that has sloped way down to only 75,000. The unemployment rate continues at 8.2 percent, which is the forty-first straight month above 8 percent. The U6 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers, is just under 15 percent.
As voters finalize their election impressions this summer, all of this is bad news for the Chicago incumbent.
In a campaign stop in Ohio on Friday, Obama actually said we’re still “heading in the right direction.” Is he kidding? As a stagnant GDP drops below 2 percent, employment falters, retail sales decline, and the ISM index for manufacturing drops below 50 (signaling contraction)? No objective observer can deny that the economy is headed in the wrong direction.
I don’t like playing the pessimist, but the numbers are the numbers. This is exactly what former Clinton advisers James Carville, Doug Schoen, and Stanley Greenberg have been warning Obama about. People just don’t believe the economy is getting better. So he’s gotta change his message.
But what change? Taxing rich people won’t create jobs. Neither will bashing Bain Capital. Obama is surrounded by leftist campaign advisers. And it’s hard to see them shifting gears to something constructive like making a summer deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for a year, or heaven forbid backing off the 20-some-odd tax hikes embodied in Obamacare.
In other words, Obama’s goose may already be cooked.
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC), spearheaded by Texas congressman Kevin Brady, put out a report saying that the Obama recovery now ranks dead last in modern times. That’s a real milestone in the post-WWII era. It’s ten out of ten for both jobs and economic growth. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, real GDP has expanded only 6.7 percent over the eleven-quarter recovery since the recession ended. The Reagan recovery at the same stage had increased by 17.6 percent. The Clinton recovery by 8.7 percent.
As for jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of private-sector jobs has grown by only 4.1 percent since the cyclical low point. Reagan’s record was 10.7 percent.
So much for Obamanomics. Didn’t work. Still isn’t working. As the JEC put it, spending stimulus, housing bailouts, auto bailouts, financial bailouts, cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, and $5 trillion in deficit spending left the Obama recovery dead last in modern times.
Whatever happened to the great boom of the ’80s and ’90s, when the animal spirits were strong and the American economy wasn’t held hostage by Europe or China? In an odd twist, both Obama and his top economist Alan Krueger blame “problems built up over decades.” Does that mean they blame Clinton? Reagan?
For nearly 25 years -- during those bad old decades -- the economy increased 3.3 percent annually. Unemployment dropped from 11 percent to 6 percent to 5 percent to below 4 percent. Obama would swoon for numbers like that. But those statistics come from the era when big government was over, when pro-market forces stopped the expansion of Leviathan, and when marginal tax rates were slashed to grow the economy.
Now the question is, with Obama’s economic goose cooked, does Mitt Romney have what it takes to win the election and provide a pro-growth economic model that will restore prosperity at home and America’s number-one position around the world?
Some powerful figures -- including Rupert Murdoch, Jack Welch, and even my brothers and sisters at the Wall Street Journal editorial page -- have taken shots at Romney in recent days. But I am more optimistic. In response to his critics on the day of the bad June jobs report, Romney talked about expanding energy resources, approving the Keystone pipeline, cutting taxes, and increasing trade with Latin America. He reaffirmed his intention to cut federal spending and eliminate programs.
Basically, Romney is promising a return to free-market, supply-side policies on taxes, trade, regulation, and spending. Hopefully he will embrace a sound and stable dollar as well. I still believe Romney is the most underrated politician in America today, and that he’s the most conservative Republican standard bearer since Ronald Reagan.
“Obama has put forward no comprehensive plan to help this Economy or our Country and won’t.”
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The best economic “plan” ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE, would be for the government (federal, state and local), to not just get out of the way, but GROSSLY reduce its size.
“I don’t understand how anyone could let him have a free-wheeling second term.”
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Unfortunately, we have WAY too many “anyones” who benefit from the redistributionist thefts sent their way by a big government.
My comment was “utter illogic”??? Divide the Conservative vote up among 7 candidates, allowing the Moderate to win with a plurality is “utter illogic”. May I remind you that Ross Perot gave us the Clintons for life because he split the vote and Clinton was a “plurality” President. Now, what if 6 more would have been running with basically the same philosophy as G.H.W. Bush and Perot? Romney is a “plurality” nominee. How is that “utter illogic”?
So you’re going to vote for Obama?
The utter illogic is the blaming of the nomination of a moderate Democrat like Romney on those of us who want a true Conservative.
The problem lies with those “Republicans” who voted in the Primaries for Romney. So despite all the (overstated)bickering, why wouldn’t ONE of the better conservatives have come out on top, anyway. Why Romney?
Again, the problem isn’t with conservatives, who are AGAIN without a csndidate, it is with the get along, moderate, uninformed mindset of GOPe voters.
You guys are directing your ire in the wrong direction.
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You're going to have to walk me through the logic train of how you came to that conclusion from my post. I was critiquing the sad state of the American voting populace.
I'll walk over nails and hold my nose to vote for the moderate Democrat Romney over the RaceMarxist.
I think we (OK, you) can make millions. We (the country) need an Obama calendar with pictures like this. Do you have 12 of these types of pictures?
I'm telling you, you could make millions.
: )
Your only real vote choice is write in:
“NONE OF THE ABOVE”
I would rather vote for Richard Pryor than these numnuts that are running!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You keep saying this like the Anti-Romney voter is going to stay home, well where I live, you do stay home, but how can I vote against both of them, if I don't vote?
“I am of the mind we will all have to endue the Economic Collapse and/or Debt Default coming to have a chance to start over.”
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That’s where I’m at.
Short of prayer, CW II, or a remarkably resourceful leader to walk us out of this economic insanity/fiscal disaster, I think utter fiscal collapse and reboot is the only alternative.
I’ll stop JUST short of what might APPEAR to be the lunacy of saying I’m actually looking forward to it.
I grew up in a free country when a ten or twelve year old could carry a shot gun or 22 rifle and no one was afraid of them. I could ride in the back of a pickup, or drive a tractor, or walk the streets without fear, no one ever locked a door.
Come on sweet potato, tell me how much better off we are now.
There is more evil at power levels than good. But we do have what history we know of the two candidates and judging by that history, the choice is clear.
Good, you can use a little company.
I put your comments under the “message is not accepted category.”
Conservatives need a new label. Young people don’t want to be ‘conservative’ because by it’s very definition it implies timidity. It implies stagnation. Couple that with the fact the the media has successfully glued ‘intolerant’ and ‘bigoted’ to the brand and voila! You can’t convince people to be ‘conservative’ who are sitting on the fence.
I think most fence sitters would respond to a call for liberty. But ‘conservative’ sounds like your parents are going to keep you from being free. “Tea-Party” has also been tarnished by the Rinos and their leftist friends in the media.
Freedom needs to make a come-back. When I think Mitt Romney I don’t think Conservative, Tea Party, or Freedom. I think Wall Street Republican. Team Obama will take advantage of that. “Obama may have screwed up the economy but Mitt will take the carcas and give it to his wealthy Wall Street Friends.” Mitt is not regular people. He’s just not. I’ll vote for him but I won’t like it. And no part of me thinks it will save the country. It will just delay the inevitable. USSA ... and Global Governance. That’s the end game. And I fear that Mitt is right there with them. I’ve never heard him articulate that he plans to restore freedom to the people. He won’t repeal ObamaCare. He won’t even fight for a fair of flat tax. All we have to look forward to is the same dance with a different partner.
You write well sweet potato, to bad you don’t have anything to say, beyond the Quisling rhetoric that you continue to spout. Less freedom is evil and neither candidate will offer more, only to not be as bad. The problem is we have denied God, and if you think a cult religion is solution, then you are either delude or a Mormon, which means you are probably never going to see the reason why Romney is not acceptable.
You guys does not include real conservatives and it certainly does not include me, however you seem to be crossing that line yourself. Six months ago you and sweet potato would have been zotted for your slobbering defense of Romney.
Luntz had a show last week with eight of the freshman class. He gave them ample opportunity to state the problem and offer a solution. Sadly all of them sounded like they had been coached by Ross Perot, they were going to get under the hood and fix it. One of them finally spouted out that Harry Reid would not let them pass a bill, but shut himself down.
Alan West was the opener and Luntz posed several "Are you still using dope" lead ins but West hit it out of the park, even the committed Obamists were shocked because they have never heard him speak. Therein lies the problem.
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