Nation's Mood Plummets
I live in the Washington, D.C., area. We're doing great economically. Sure, this is because we're feeding at the trough of taxpayer funds, but we're doing great. Most of the country's wealthiest counties are now in the D.C. area. But I'm from Colorado, where many of my closest friends and family are out of work. One of these people -- a highly educated, smart and capable husband and father -- told me he was worried the economy might never improve enough for him to provide for his family the way he'd like. Sounds like he's not alone. From today's New York Times:
Americans are more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
You can take a look at the numbers here. Some 70% believe the country is on the wrong track. Disapproval of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy has never been higher — at 57 percent of Americans.
Disapproval of both parties is high but a majority of Americans seek fewer services from government to save money and there's even support for spending cuts over tax hikes and other broad Tea Party themes.
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Sep '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Yeah' I'm down with tax cuts and all that. But, perhaps, more fundamentally we have not come to grips with the re-ordering of the economy caused by the globalization of the last forty years. Whichever way it's said we've too few jobs for a middle class or too many middle class people.
Edited on Apr 22, 2011 at 7:34amFeb '11
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
This is why Obama may be in very serious trouble. There are three elements to our economic predicament: loose fiscal policy, loose monetary policy, and increasing regulations. Republicans want to focus on tax policy, but whether top marginal rate is 34 or 39% is not nearly as important as the other parts of the puzzle. If the other parts of the puzzle are causing a 50% decrease in your income, it makes little difference whether you're taxed at 34 or 39% tax rate. If Republicans fall into the trap of obsessing on tax rates alone -- as the Democrats would have them do -- then Republicans can very easily blow the 2012 election and have another 4 years of the Obama misery.
Sep '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
This is definitely bad news for Obama. Everything Obama campaigned on in 2008 either got worse or stayed the same. I know most of us here can see his incompetency, but I think independents and Democrats are beginning to see it too. We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we've added Libya to the mix (and badly). We still have renditions, the Patriot Act and Guantanamo. We have higher unemployment and a worsening economy with no recovery in sight. We have the same racial division and complaining and the same hyper-partisanship Obama was supposed to assuage. America is not more respected in the world. Will ordinary Americans really want more Barack Obama in 2012?
Obama is in another bind of his own making: His words and assurances are now known to be utterly meaningless, so he can't talk his way out of any of this with more promises.
Having the media on his side is what is keeping him as a viable candidate. They might go down with him if they aren't careful.
Nov '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Here are some mood-altering thoughts for Obama:
Killer Combo of High Gas, Food Prices at Key Tipping Point
Wonder if he cares?
Oct '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
I do not see how the data presented by NYT is anything but bad news. Yes, the headline numbers
look good, but the details are all bad. Assume the leading problem (that the government has some sort of influence over) for our economy is the federal budget. Here the President beats Republicans in Congress, 33 vs 27% and 59 vs 63% (approve and disapprove).
Moreover, if entitlements are the driver in the budget deficit, and health care the driver for entitlement, then look at the numbers for aid the the poor and elderly (by far the larger share). A majority of citizens, and in particular, Republicans, support aid to the elderly. (Numbers are 76 and 55%, respectively.)
Note, I do concede that the above logic is not fool-proof: something can be the leading of many causes without being the "majority" of a cause, and of course, when you are the leading cause of the leading cause, the waters are not exactly Caribbean blue.
But see pt 2.
Edited on Apr 22, 2011 at 11:41amOct '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Part 2...
Now for the coup de grace. Sure, citizens say they prefer spending cuts to increased taxes ("on people like you"), 58 to 29%, but the next question is rather telling. The majority of Americans, 72% of adults and a whopping 55% of Republicans, have little problem raising taxes on families with incomes exceeding $250K.
If Americans have to choose, they choose spending cuts over raising taxes ("on people like you"), but many Americans seem to think this is a false dilemma. If you can just raise taxes on the rich there would be no need to cut spending ("that benefit people like you").
I listened to the podcast last night. The guest, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, talked about a "tipping point", when a majority of people receive more from the government than they put in.
If we have not already passed such a point, the NYT numbers indicate to me that we are knowingly and purposely racing at top speed in that direction.
Edited on Apr 22, 2011 at 8:47amMay '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
And yet for all this, I keep hearing in various media that, due to a weak GOP field, Obama is a lock for re-election. Is this The Big Lie at work?
Also, I am probably a paranoid crackpot but, I do believe that Obama'a intent is to bring the nation into decline, Cloward-Piven style. Are we so numb so as to grant him another term to pursue this end? Already I'm worried about 2012.
I need to get out more.
Apr '11
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
It is hard to get anything like a real understanding of where we're going. I don't believe that Obama wants to destroy us so he can save us ala Cloward-Piven, I think he actually believes in the Blue Social Model (via Walter Russell Mead) and wants to preserve it. Unfortunately or fortunately (I'm not sure which) trying to save Big Blue is like trying to save the Titanic after it's already hit the iceberg.
Kervinlee: And yet for all this, I keep hearing in various media that, due to a weak GOP field, Obama is a lock for re-election. Is this The Big Lie at work?
Also, I am probably a paranoid crackpot but, I do believe that Obama'a intent is to bring the nation into decline, Cloward-Piven style. Are we so numb so as to grant him another term to pursue this end? Already I'm worried about 2012.
I need to get out more. · Apr 22 at 10:07am
Sep '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Patrick in Albuquerque: ...But, perhaps, more fundamentally we have not come to grips with the re-ordering of the economy caused by the globalization of the last forty years. · Apr 22 at 7:32am
Edited on Apr 22 at 07:34 am
Amen. We have been feeding the engine of our economy bad gas and gritty oil for almost half a century. It's a wonder the dang thing runs at all, let alone at the rate of the highest GDP in the world.
EPA, CPSC, tort-insanity, high corporate taxes and capital gains rates...I could go on for an hour with the things that are holding us back from booming economic growth. It's like those crazy Navy Divers that I see training at the pool here every week; they tread water with 20 pounds of bricks in hand while holding a conversation with the poolside instructor. Drop the bricks and they fairly shoot out of the water.
Maybe if things get bad enough we can jettison some of the regulatory dead weight.
Mar '11
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
You can take a look at the numbers here. Some 70% believe the country is on the wrong track.
Good. We are.
May '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Lady Bertrum: It is hard to get anything like a real understanding of where we're going. I don't believe that Obama wants to destroy us so he can save us ala Cloward-Piven, I think he actually believes in the Blue Social Model (via Walter Russell Mead) and wants to preserve it. Unfortunately or fortunately (I'm not sure which) trying to save Big Blue is like trying to save the Titanic after it's already hit the iceberg.
Kervinlee: And yet for all this, I keep hearing in various media that, due to a weak GOP field, Obama is a lock for re-election. Is this The Big Lie at work?
Also, I am probably a paranoid crackpot but, I do believe that Obama'a intent is to bring the nation into decline, Cloward-Piven style. Are we so numb so as to grant him another term to pursue this end? Already I'm worried about 2012.
I need to get out more. · Apr 22 at 10:07am
Apr 22 at 10:29am
That's a new one on me. I'll do my homework and get back to you. Thanks!
May '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
I'm in the same boat as Kervinlee. I simply can't envision Obama for another 4 years. Yet a lot of the people I work around, simply don't get it. Most aren't even paying attention. They are too wrapped up with their lives, and football teams, baseball teams etc to give thought to what's happening. I too am worried about 2012.
Apr '11
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Those folks will notice when gas is $6 per/gal, unemployment is still in the 8's, their home values are still dropping, and inflation is on the rise.
It's the economy, Stupid (that's a general stupid, not you specifically).
May '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Lady Bertrum
Those folks will notice when gas is $6 per/gal, unemployment is still in the 8's, their home values are still dropping, and inflation is on the rise.
It's the economy, Stupid (that's a general stupid, not you specifically). · Apr 22 at 11:35am
One would think so. But, when gas prices spiked and unemployment rose during the GWB years, the media went after him hammer and tong, to the effect of tiring everyone of all things Bush and GOP.
Now the media is as silent as a tomb on the unemployment rate and the growing inflation, never mind the kinetic action or whatever in Libya, and I just sense a complete lack of indignation or concern that went with the Bush years.
Jan '11
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Patrick in Albuquerque is correct. IMHO we under-recognize that the first few years of free trade and globalization are the "best' - because you have access to a bedazzling array of new products at low prices. But then your neighbour who makes things can't compete in that new environment, and in the end, either other countries see their standard of living rise, where here the standard of living must necessarily fall.
Jul '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
Another accomplishment for Obama, 9 of the top 15 counties in the nation for per capita income are within 100 miles of DC, the rest are divided between NJ, NY, and CO.
And MIT remembered their federal funding and so have stopped publishing the national slice of data from their Billion Price Index, which showed inflation soaring over 10% in the US just prior.
I am reminded of a story by a Hoover Institution fellow about a chilling call from the Clinton White House assuring him that Hoover would never receive another dime of federal money as long as he was associated with them. He laughed at the goon, as Hoover was not accepting federal funds. As always, Obama makes the Clintons seem classy in a fuzzy, nostalgic way.
You are either a federally selected winner, or your platforms will lack permits and the hordes of OFA, et. al., will descend to threaten your law makers and vandalize your capitol in the cause of making an ever louder sucking sound.
564 more days until the election.
Edited on Apr 22, 2011 at 3:38pmDec '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
I have to report that most remain oblivious. I try to gently explain to the Boyz that prices are rising and we should be careful, but they are kids. Mom is mostly insulated from things as I buy all gas, groceries, electric and sundries, while she pays the mortgage on a house she has had for nineteen years. One kicker is that she just discovered that the mortgage is underwater, even after nineteen years of payments. Ding, ding, ding!
Today, I was busy and she had to do the grocery shopping. She said, "You know, groceries are really expensive"! I love her, but she will probably vote to re-elect Obama because she is a fruitcake that just charms me, and I love her.
Jul '10
Re: Nation's Mood Plummets
CJRun: I have to report that most remain oblivious. I try to gently explain to the Boyz that prices are rising and we should be careful, but they are kids. Mom is mostly insulated from things as I buy all gas, groceries, electric and sundries, while she pays the mortgage on a house she has had for nineteen years. One kicker is that she just discovered that the mortgage is underwater, even after nineteen years of payments. Ding, ding, ding!
Today, I was busy and she had to do the grocery shopping. She said, "You know, groceries are really expensive"! I love her, but she will probably vote to re-elect Obama because she is a fruitcake that just charms me, and I love her. · Apr 22 at 5:26pm
Sounds like we need you to keep her, umm, preoccupied, come the next Presidential election.