Earlier this week, Barack Obama once again blamed George W. Bush for the economy. Obama told a crowd at a campaign stop that Republicans were like somebody who orders a big steak dinner and a martini, then leaves the table without paying the bill just when you show up. On Wednesday, U.S. Army Captain Joubert Paulino and Lieutenant William Edwards may have experienced the same thing, but from Barack Obama. Obama held a photo-op at the Kenny′s BBQ restaurant in Washington honoring the two soldiers, as well as two local barbers, as part of a focus on Fatherhood. The two Army officers had won fatherhood awards and the two barbers, Otis Gamble and Nurney Mason, participated in a federal program called ′Fatherhood Buzz.′ Obama had a plate of beef ribs, black-eyed peas, rice and corn bread. Once the photo-op was over, Obama and his entourage left without paying the tab.
What a guy! The elitist Obama shows his general contempt for ordinary Americans once again. Thursday evening, Obama spent about four hours hanging out with celebrities in New York City attending a fundraiser hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker and Anna Wintour. A $40,000 price of admission was waived for two lucky winners who contributed $3 to reelect Obama. All totaled, Obama walked away with some $3.6 million dollars yesterday.
While ordinary Americans are most concerned with the state of the economy, Obama′s celebrity supporters have a different agenda. Their most serious issues are gay marriage, free birth control and blocking the Keystone pipeline. Obama shares their concerns far more than he does that of the Average American. He can care less that his policies have increased the number of unemployed from 79 million under Bush to over 100 million working age Americans today. The only crisis at the West Village affair last night was a shortage of expensive wines. Oh, how could Obama and his elitist friends deal with such hardships?
At least Barack Obama did not skip out on the lunch tab last night as he did Wednesday dining with two Army soldiers and two local DC barbers. Skipping out on tabs is something Obama is famous for. He has already racked up more debt that the first 42 American presidents combined in just three and a half years. By the end of his term, he′ll surpass all 43 previous presidents, unless voters rescue the nation and give Republicans control of both wings of the Congress and the White House. Otherwise, Obama′s spending spree will continue to grow and enslave future generations of Americans with his debt.
June 15th, 2012 at 3:44 am
Face it, the guy is used to going to dinner and walking out with everyone else’s wallets. Not opening his own!!
June 15th, 2012 at 5:24 am
Earlier this week, Barack Obama once again blamed George W. Bush for the economy
So? It’s 100% George W. Bush’s fault– and the product of his misguided, warped, and immoral policies, wars, and corruption.
Sorry you’re sick of hearing the truth. I bet 2 + 2 = 4 really bothers you too.
In case anyone cares, Andrew forgot to include this part of the news story from ABC:
The White House corrected the oversight and settled up the tab by the end of the business day.
June 15th, 2012 at 8:30 am
Can’t wait for November when we can have a normal president again.
June 15th, 2012 at 9:23 am
Yeah. Romney is “normal”.
Oh wait, sorry. I missed the code. Yeah, I gotcha now… You want a “normal” president in the Normal House.
Wink
June 15th, 2012 at 11:28 am
Right, ‘Me’, 100% George Bush’s fault!
Forget about Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton causing the housing bubble with their schemes to provide federal money to back up subprime mortgages.
Forget about Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin, paving the way for an out of control derivatives market and for eliminating Glass-Steagall.
Forget about the Asian Contagion and the Dot-Com bubble bursting during Clinton’s last year as president, causing a recession when George Bush took office.
Forget about Al Qaeda attacking the U.S. and setting us down a path of a long-term war.
Forget about Clinton playing footsie with Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Syria, etc.
Yep, just forget all that history and wrongly blame George Bush for everything.
June 15th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Forget about Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton causing the housing bubble with their schemes to provide federal money to back up subprime mortgages.
We’ve been through this. If you want to blame Clinton, you can blame him insofar as he caved to Republicans ending Glass-Steagall. I’ll give you that one. Of course, since you brought it up, and we agree there, I’m sure you’re on board getting G/S reinstated immediately and a proponent of some serious regulations coming out of Frank/Dodd…
This alternate universe of blaming Freddie and Fannie for the meltdown is not only illogical, not only easily shown to be false (by asking anyone involved in banking– even republican bankers– this isn’t some narrative bankers or economists say, it’s a ridiculous fiction republican right wing talk shows say), by looking at similar bubbles in other countries, etc. NOBODY believes your government-mandates-caused-the-meltdown theory. It’s as ridiculous as creationism.
As for the Dot-Com bubble bursting– i don’t see the connection to the 2008 meltdown at all, but if you want to blame someone, we can blame Ayn Rand fanboi Alan Greenspan for letting that bubble happen as well as the one that followed…
Al Quaeda? Really? Because the hike in military spending, the Iraq War, the restructuring of government & massive investments in Homeland Security if anything acted as a stimulus– not to mention the actual stimuluses and tax breaks– almost all geared towards the top money earners. Which is why during the 2000s the middle class’ income was flat as a pancake while the rich got ridiculously richer. And the Iraq War, tax breaks, Afghanistan, Medicare– 4 trillion dollars of this stuff– NONE of it paid for. Republicans do NOT understand the basics of how the economy works. They don’t know how to balance a budget– they are borrow and spend economists. And now they seem to think that choking entire economies of income (aka “austerity”) will somehow NOT completely tank them.
Amazing. And they continue to insist on it, although i think the line has been changed recently to “we need austerity now to somehow not have to do austerity”…. it makes no sense at all.
re: “footsie”. i dunno what you’re talking about, and you don’t either. I do remember Bush not worrying about Al Quaeda before 9/11, Osama Bin Laden after, and how Bush proclaimed Khadafi was the US’s new buddy and economic partner since they had learned so much from 9/11. Why, he even apologized for blowing up an airplane with Americans on it. Forgive and forget, tee hee! Awesome foreign policy genius. Massive debt, economic destruction, bad will from the world– America is wounded, in debt and decline, and the blood trail goes straight back to GWB’s front door.
June 15th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
‘Me’, you must also accept that there were many Democrats involved in eliminating G-S. Not the least of which was Joe Biden, Mr. Friend of Banking in Delaware. Seriously, nothing in Dodd-Frank will help prevent another recession. In fact, it will make the next one even worse.
Talking about alternate universes, did you watch the Jamie Dimon hearing this week? That was hilarious when Democrat senators try to pin Dimon down on taking TARP money. He set them straight!
The Dot-Com bubble bursting is why Bush pushed for the tax cuts to get the economy going again. The Clinton recession was only made worse after the 9/11 attacks. Thanks to the Bush Tax Cuts, we had 56 consecutive months of growth and unemployment at near historically low levels. Even in Massachusetts, 47th in the country under Romney, had an unemployment rate below 5%.
Yes, Al Qaeda was the main reason why the budget went to heck under Bush, not Iraq. About $500 Billion was spent to build the DHS in the first couple years after 9/11. But thanks to the Bush Tax Cuts, and the growth in GDP, we were on course to have a balanced budget within five years. That is, until Democrats took over the House and Senate in 2006.
As for “footsie”, it may surprise you to know that in 2000, Clinton had our military fly more combat sorties over Iraq than during all of the Gulf War. Yet, he still could not get Saddam Hussein to comply with the 17 UN resolutions.
June 15th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
‘Me’, you must also accept that there were many Democrats involved in eliminating G-S.
Yes, but it was a GOP project- spearheaded by Phil Gramm. The Democrats involved deserve blame for selling out the Democrat traditions and institutions. They were turncoats following a Republican agenda.
Seriously, nothing in Dodd-Frank will help prevent another recession. In fact, it will make the next one even worse.
Well it has been so defanged by Republicans that this is yet another one of those “we’ve totally gutted a law and made it near-useless, so now we’ll complain about how useless it is.” See pretty much every law passed under Democratic majority. “Obamacare” aka the Republican/Bob Bennett/Heritage Foundation Health Care Act of 1993 is exhibit A. The stimulus/tax break of 2008/2009 being two more. The Daily Show just this week had a great illustration of this hypocracy, where Republican Senators who inserted loopholes and weaknesses in the bill now condemn the bill for its loopholes and weaknesses. Shameless.
That said, although grossly inadequate, Dodd Frank is better than no law at all. It does maybe 3% of what it should, relies on regulators to write the other rules (which are also being lobbied to water down), leaves too-big-to-fail in place, and who knows if we get the Volker Rule? But it sounds like you’re fully behind it, which is good to hear.
And speaking of the Daily Show and that hilarious hearing/group hug with Dimon, check out the segment they did this week, pointing out who’s the #1 contributor to all their campaigns (Dimon) and why he got the soft-glove treatment and ass kissing.
June 15th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Whatever. That “buck stops there” idiot in the picture above is running things now.
June 16th, 2012 at 1:04 am
‘Me’, it was Robert Rubin who began the campaign to do away with G-S. As for D-F, it figures that you would think a bad law is better than no law.
June 16th, 2012 at 12:15 pm
It’s not a “bad” law, it’s an insufficient law. It’s an insufficient law because of republican opposition. It’s better than nothing.
Republicans really need to (1) stop making good bills bad and then (2) complaining that they’re bad.
As for Rubin– yes, putting Goldman Sachs executives in charge of government economic functions is not a good idea. (See: Paulson, Henry “Hank the Tank”) It’s amazing actually that we agree that the most conservative Democrats are as bad and destructive as Republicans. The jump of the Democrat establishment to the right– blue dogs, DLC… and now this conservative-leaning president… We have two parties– your bizarro one (which is going to collapse/be reborn due to its extremism) and then the 1990s republican party, aka “Democrats”.
June 17th, 2012 at 1:46 am
Dodd-Frank is a horrible law. It makes life more difficult for smaller and regional banks. It adds obstacles to venture capital investments. And it does ZERO about curbing Fannie, Freddie and the entire derivatives market.
BTW, its too bad that none of those idiot senators grilling Jamie Dimon asked him about the secret, internal memo JPM was floating with its largest customers. The memo that Charlie Gasparino reported about on FBN that JPM is warning its friends about the looming and growing $3.9 Trillion dollar shortfall of public pension programs. I would say that might be a tad more important than the silly, little trading error JPM made.