Obama’s year-end presser

There is much more to the nuance of Obama’s speech but it basically was book-ended by two paragraphs, at the beginning and at the end.

“Meanwhile, around the world, America is leading. We’re leading the coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL — a coalition that includes Arab partners. We’re leading the international community to check Russian aggression in Ukraine. We are leading the global fight to combat Ebola in West Africa, and we are preventing an outbreak from taking place here at home. We’re leading efforts to address climate change, including last month’s joint announcement with China that’s already jumpstarting new progress in other countries. We’re writing a new chapter in our leadership here in the Americas by turning a new page on our relationship with the Cuban people.“

America is leading? It would have to be in spite of Obama not because of him.

Remember that saying I used: “if it happens in politics, you can bet it was planned that way.” Notice a hint of this philosophy in Obama’s remarks:

“In terms of my own job, I’m energized, I’m excited about the prospects for the next couple of years, and I’m certainly not going to be stopping for a minute in the effort to make life better for ordinary Americans. Because, thanks to their efforts, we really do have a new foundation that’s been laid. We are better positioned than we have been in a very long time. A new future is ready to be written. We’ve set the stage for this American moment. And I’m going to spend every minute of my last two years making sure that we seize it.”

That saying is believed to be a maligned loose paraphrase of FDR. (Liberal academics say FDR never said those words.) I don’t really care, but here are some words from FDR’s speech in October 1935 (6 years after ’29):

“I am glad, in coming back here … to find a very definite evidence of what I found in my trip across the continent… there was general admission that this country was coming back. You could see it with your own eyes.

Yes, we are on our way back— not just by pure chance, my friends, not just by a turn of the wheel, of the cycle. We are coming back more soundly than ever before because we are planning it that way. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.”

I almost laugh at reading FDR’s words then Obama’s speech. So we see Obama trying to lay the foundation, not for America’s interests but for his own legacy.

There was another vain reference to his self-relevance in his prepared closing remarks.

“My presidency is entering the fourth quarter; interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. And I’m looking forward to it. But going into the fourth quarter, you usually get a timeout. I’m now looking forward to a quiet timeout — Christmas with my family. “

Depends what you mean by interesting. If you mean a flurry of executive orders because you cannot dictate to Congress, then “interesting” probably is not quite the word I was thinking of. “Interesting stuff”…or more planned catastrophe to come.

Had Bush said that, those words “interesting stuff” would be in headlines of every paper. America (and history) should be so lucky to get a time-out from Obama.

Reference popular saying:
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

RightRing | Bullright

Unibama strikes again

To rewrite his legacy and the election results. The year-end finale.

There’s a saying: “If it happens in politics, you can bet it was planned that way.”*

That’s the scenario in Obama’s end of year presser before dashing off on his coveted vacation in Havana er Hawaii.

People can say it was for various reasons: his disintegrating popularity and credibility, his divisive policies, or his explanations for his Havana policy. No, he has political reasons. He stirred the pot by normalizing Cuba relations to inflame. Now he does a presser to take questions, as if those influence any dictator, and supplies contentious answers.

He intentionally stirred up a hornets nest with yet another Executive – whatever he is calling them these days – action. Then he goes off on vacation while everyone discusses his latest unilateral controversy. Since people are outraged by his arrogance abuses of power, it ensures they’ll be talking about him and what he did. So they’ll be talking about his agenda and he then controls the agenda.

So even after finishing the year with Democrats’ landslide loss, everyone has been talking about is his agenda, backed by his pen. Why only baffles some people — more outrage. But our outrage is only a reaction not a defense against it. (Much like the election)

Even in taking questions, he selected certain press to control some of the questions. Thus, even the appearance of having an open presser was a fraud. It is about control, controlling national dialogue into the new year. His way of saying bah-humbug to Republicans.

It’s a clever way of denying that voters declared him all but irrelevant weeks before. Yet he manages to be as relevant as ever by controlling the discussion, despite losses. Republicans go into a new year with more power than they have had in years, thanks largely to Obama’s unpopularity. He couldn’t even campaign for the Dems that lost, who disassociated with him. But can he continue to do it into the new year?

Now he is standing there saying you cannot ignore me. Not only can’t we, but everyone is left talking about his disgusting Executive abuses. He seems to argue “at least they’re talking about me”. Even that is deceiving, narcissist that he is. What he really cares about is forcing his crappy agenda — stinking up the room — back to the center of the table.

He completely dismisses and ignores Congress, yet no one can ignore him and his plans. He demands a response to his failed policies and agenda even after the people rejected them. Dems could not run on anything Obama was doing. In fact, in many places, like Louisiana, they spoke out against him to win votes.
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That is just the backdrop and purpose to his presser. Mission: deny and defy reality.

[*sometimes attributed as a quote, I use it as a popular saying that it is]

RightRing | Bullright

Obama’s ‘playing my way’ address

King Barry had a press conference today explaining some his positions.
I plan on doing an analysis just as soon as my decoder is back in service.

It got overloaded about midway through his presentation…
somewhere between Havana, Ferguson and the black community.

But I can report he did not make a New Years’ resolution.

PS: It will not be before AF-1 wheels touchdown in Hawaii.

RightRing | Bullright

In the meantime: Five Questions for President Obama / Townhall

Obama debt, disaster and deceit … are always looming

Professor of fiscal irresponsibility, Obama, enlightened us in his press conference:

“So let me explain this. If Congress refuses to raise what’s called the debt ceiling, America would not be able to meet all of our financial obligations for the first time in 225 years.

And because it's called raising the debt ceiling, I think a lot of Americans think it's raising our debt. It is not raising our debt. This does not add a dime to our debt.

It simply says you pay for what Congress has already authorized America to purchase, whether that’s the greatest military in the world or veterans’ benefits or Social Security. Whatever it is that Congress has already authorized, what this does is make sure that we can pay those bills.

Now the last time that the tea party Republicans flirted with the idea of default, two years ago, markets plunged, business and consumer confidence plunged, America’s credit rating was downgraded for the first time, and a decision to actually go through with it, to actually permit default, according to many CEOs and economists, would be — and I’m quoting here — “insane, catastrophic, chaos” — these are some of the more polite words.

Warren Buffett likened default to a nuclear bomb, a weapon too horrible to use. It would disrupt markets, it would undermine the world’s confidence in America as the bedrock of the global economy, and it might permanently increase our borrowing costs which, of course, ironically would mean that it would be more expensive for us to service what debt we do have and it would add to our deficits and our debt, not decrease them.

There’s nothing fiscally responsible about that. Preventing this should be simple. As I said, raising the debt ceiling is a lousy name, which is why members of Congress in both parties don’t like to vote on it, because it makes you vulnerable in political campaigns. But it does not increase our debt. It does not grow our deficit, it does not allow for a single dime of increased spending. All it does is allow the Treasury Department to pay for what Congress has already spent.”

More Washington Post

So let’s review. Raising the debt ceiling does not add a dime to the debt, but not raising it adds to the deficit and debt. Got it? He can see how increased borrowing costs add to our debt; but raising the debt ceiling — because we are right up against it — does not add anything to debt. Nope.

	Gross Federal Debt	Debt Held by Public	Debt Held by Federal Reserve
FY 2014*	$18.2 trillion	$11.6 trillion	$1.6 trillion
FY 2013*	$17.2 trillion	$10.7 trillion	$1.6 trillion
FY 2012	$16.1 trillion	$9.6 trillion	$1.6 trillion
FY 2011	$14.8 trillion	$8.5 trillion	$1.7 trillion
FY 2010	$13.5 trillion	$8.2 trillion	$0.8 trillion
FY 2009	$11.9 trillion	$6.8 trillion	$0.8 trillion

How many times have we increased the debt ceiling under Obama? A few now. Why? I suggest the debt ceiling has been raised many times, over time, which allowed the debt to rise. How else could the debt have risen above the ceiling ? So why, then, do they always link hitting the debt ceiling with default — if they are not going to add to the debt?

Government debt in the United States has steadily increased from $2 trillion in the mid 1980s to over $17 trillion today. But as a percent of GDP it has grown from 55 percent to over 100 percent of GDP today.

In the Crash of 2008 government debt increased sharply to bail out the banks and to provide “stimulus” to the economy. Debt reached 104 percent of GDP in 2009. But debt is expected to plateau at about 122 percent of GDP in the next few years.

But maybe in Obama’s world the GDP could be just shrinking that much.

 
Then he closed his box of tricks with this:

Now, the good news is… Our housing market is healing; we’ve cut the deficit in half. Since I took office, the deficit is coming down faster than any time in the last 50 years.

He has some real sophistry working there. Note he is talking about the “deficit” now. So if the budget deficit beginning in his first term was running all time highs, then he has decreased it from that level. Gee, see isn’t that great?

If its so great then why do we have to keep raising the debt ceiling again and again?(and probably again in the near future.) Could it be that we were so far beyond budget limits that anything short of that looks like a big improvement?

Source: http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/