Barack Obama read a statement today, my paraphrases and quick transcription:
Disputes downgrade. Quotes Warren Buffett that U.S. should have AAAA rating.
Need “balanced long term approach” — needed “day I took office.” Blames “prolonged debate over debt ceiling” for downgrade, and string of economic disruptions in Japan, Europe and the Middle East.
Solution is simple: “Tax reform that will ask those who can afford it to pay their fair share.” And “modest adjustments” to entitlements.
Not a lack of plans, “insistence on drawing lines in the sand.”
Most immediate concern of Americans is slow pace of recovery coming out of “worst recession” in our lifetimes. Extend payroll tax cut as soon as possible, and extend unemployment insurance payments. One million fewer jobs if don’t do this. Plus, more infrastructure spending.
These are proposals Republicans had agreed to in the past and should agree to now.
“This is the United States of America, no matter what some ratings agency says, we will always be a AAA country.”
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How’s that Obama 401(k) doing ?
The Sage of Omaha is on credit watch himself.
Berkshire Hathaway’s outlook has just been revised from stable to negative.
Berkshire Hathaway lost it’s AAA in February 2010.
That was a pathetic, monotone speech and he said nothing new. He even trotted out the “fair share” line. Typical.
“This is the United States of America, no matter what some ratings agency says, we will always be a AAA country.”
What a stupid line! Yeah, Mr. President, and I will always be 18 and 110 pounds, no matter what some scale and mirror says. I suppose he was trying to be uplifting but he just sounded insincere. And depressed.
I agree. I have been saying this guy is right out of The Beatles song – Nowhere Man: He’s as blind as he can see – Just sees what he wants to see – Nowhere Man can you see me at all.
LOL He’s as blind as he can be…. LOL
… but the “Nowhere Man” is sitting making his nowhere plans.
Obama doesn’t have a “plan.”
Blames “prolonged debate over debt ceiling” for downgrade
I understand the Tea Party is responsible for halitosis and gingivitis, too. The sad part is his media guard dogs have already been working this line.
I feel so reassured the president is not wavering or averting his gaze. He’s standing firm … eyes looking straight ahead into those headlights.
A little off topic, but did anyone else notice the VERY OBVIOUS use of the word “crashed” when he talked about the SEAL chopper we lost in Afghanistan? My understanding is that the Taliban shot the Chinook down. In my view, there’s a pretty big difference between crashed and shot down.
Once again, Obama misspeaks. Could it have been deliberate? I leave it for you to decide.
Since he reads everything off the teleprompter, then I would say yes, it was deliberate.
Yes, I noticed that. Commercial airlines don’t have “accidents”, they have “crashes” which are either 100% mechanical failure, !00% pilot error, or some combination of same. The helicopter in question was shot down by enemy while working in harms way. His description was embarrassingly inadequate to the point of being disrespectful.
Thanks for listening so I didn’t have to. I was right — he did essentially say that the S&P acted stupidly.
Obama takes credit for the sunrise and blames the sunset on the Tea Party …
CRASH: NASDAQ OFF 6.4%, BANK OF AMERICA OFF 20.5%, S&P OFF 6.4%
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-selloff-gets-worse-as-the-world-waits-for-obama-2011-8#ixzz1USpDeHAX
VIX at 44. Treasurys rally after being downgraded. Gold up $70. This is market action similar to what happned after Lehman failed. Even if the Europeans finally resolve their financial crisis, the markets seem to think the economic damage is already done and we’re looking at a global recession.
“….and we’re looking at a global recession.”
I beg to differ: We’re looking at the 2nd Great Depression.
Thanks, President Downgrade.
No mention of deregulation? No mention of repealing Obamacare?
Will have no impact… correction WILL HAVE NEGATIVE IMPACT. It will make things worse, because it makes it clear he has no idea how to get businesses moving.
Dow dropped below 11,000 After his speech and went 200 below that.
I was looking forward to the one sentence summary – which is as much of a mainstay to Legal Insurrection as bumper sticker pics.
I agree with Doctor Zero (John Hayward, @Doc_0 on Twitter): Obama is insane and should resign.
If he is sane, the only logical conclusion is that Obama WANTS this outcome. There is no other way to explain continuing down this path.
I state the obvious: IT ISN’T WORKING. And this downgrade is all on Obama, no matter how much the spin doctors try to push the blame away.
The president ALWAYS gets the blame or credit. Not the Congress.
Obama is President Downgrade.
Doorbell.
Here is a link to a video posted on Powerline. At the end is east access to the embed code.
Seems to me it is a strong dose of reality, and in many ways, the perfect antidote to having to listen to him pontificate in such a manner.
Easy access, that is.
Interesting also that he blamed the crisis on the inability of the two sides to come to an agreement on the debt ceiling over the past few month.
Tell me, do you think maybe — just maybe — the fact that a Democratically controlled Congress with a Democratic president didn’t come up with a budget for more than two years might have had something to do with this? He is so narcissistic, he won’t accept even 0.001% of the blame.
Words like duplicitous and nefarious come to mind . . .
Obama may be sweating how this downgrade and market reaction will affect his re-election prospects, but I’m convinced he’s counting on his fellow-traveler press and the electorate’s usual short attention span to get away with it, “it” being intentional degradation and transformation of America. This speech could be in one of those dystopian movies about power brokers and visionaries, their mouthpieces, and the manipulated, duped populations. BO would be the mouthpiece, mostly. He’s just not smart enough to have done so much damage in so short of time.
This is John Hayward’s column on the speech. Brilliant.
On President Downgrade being late for the speech — I wonder if he thinks being late makes things look more important. “We were working on this until the last minute! And beyond!”
Ya gotta admit, the President’s had one helluva 50th birthday.
Obama has never taken responsibility for anything in his entire life, has he? Oh, he has tried to grab credit for things he had nothing to do with rather regularly, but has he ever admitted any responsibility, any mistake on his own part?
The closest I can recall is when he said he should have taken more time to explain his health care plan to all the nitwit Americans who didn’t understand it, but that’s not exactly owning up to the real error, IMO.
…because the answer to dealing with people who, for the past 5 years, have chronically had the worst financial instincts is to get them more money from the job creaters.
I always listen to him on the radio rather than watch him on TV. He is a mediocre speaker at best. His uh’s, err’s and ah’s are distracting. This guy is an empty suit.
Yeah, but the dems gave us B.O.
[…] the world the markets pretty much said, “That’s it; we’re outa here.” Obama’s Address to the Nation: Draws line in sand, there must be no lines in sand other than the o…Posted by William A. Jacobson Monday, August 8, 2011 at […]
In 2008 the US gave Middles East countries (also OPEC) $33.486 BILLION tax dollars. The Federal government has just been announced as paying to rebuild mosques, many of which were destroyed due to being used as weapons storage, firing positions, and insurgent planning headquarters (all of which violate international law). Now, we are sending US TAX DOLLARS to rebuild the mosques/fighting positions.
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