Obama

by Ann Major

Created on: September 06, 2011   Last Updated: September 10, 2011

At some point in his four-year term of office, President Obama needs to stop passing the buck; quit the blame game; assume responsibility of being the country's leader and for the gloomy job picture that has resulted. Rightly or wrongly, a good leader takes the blame without making excuses of having inherited a challenging situation; stands as captain at the helm of his ship; whether the ship stays afloat or hopelessly sinks, Obama must sink with it.

With unemployment currently standing over 9%, Obama does not have a leg to stand on as far as finger-pointing to the Republicans. Rather than surrounding himself with a group of financial practitioners, he has chosen instead a group of advisers from the ivory towers of Academia, espousing theories and ideologies which neither work nor stimulate the economy, let alone jobs.

The Stimulus that failed to stimulate

Whenever Obama spends money, he always claims "President Bush made me do it..." because he inherited a huge deficit. Obama may have inherited a sinking hole, but his contributions to the deficit quadrupled in less than three years in office. None of these outrageous expenditures created jobs but instead paid for pork contained within various stimulus packages. $2 million dollars was given for "swine odor and manure management", free condoms given away to people for birth control, $200,000 for the "task of tattoo removal".

The "Cash for Clunkers" program was just that, a clunker. Trading in derelict autos in exchange for a new car, along with a few thousand dollars for incentive dug into taxpayers' pockets, without creating jobs nor stimulating the auto industry. For people who know how to dig deep enough into government incentives for free handouts such as an electric car, you can get one, along with a free golf cart. You may be going green by getting or purchasing an electric car, but the only green you will see is the doubling of the green in electric bills by plugging in an energy drainer. How many green jobs did Obama create?

As for mega-buck loans to major banks, including the ones who didn't need or want the money, the irony of the situation is CEOs continue to be paid outrageously high salaries and bonuses, while banks hoard the money given by government, making it even harder for the ordinary Joe to qualify for loans and mortgages. The number of foreclosed homes stand at a dizzying high percentage.

Green jobs

"Green" projects take a great deal of money to get a company off its feet, as well as involving a very long-term commitment, besides taking away existing industrial jobs. Truth of the matter is, after pumping money into green projects like wind turbines and solar heating systems, many companies have quickly gone belly-up or bankrupt after money was given to them by Obama. As a result, money has been lost, no jobs created, jobs lost, money wasted.

Latest news is, solar company, Solyndra, has filed bankruptcy after having been given $535 million dollars by the government in loan guarantees (2009) as part of an economic stimulus package.  Now the House Energy and Commerce Committee are calling for an investigation into where that money has gone. This is a joint statement made by them and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee: "Irresponsibly choosing winners and losers on projects like Solyndra is a perilous and often doomed method to create jobs."

GE received stimulus from the government, a century-old institution that stands as one of America's finest employers, has recently moved its x-ray department to China. You can count numerous companies that have moved many departments to China or Mexico because it is cheaper to operate in third world countries, than to compete with outrageous demands for wages and pensions.

Pipe Dream

A recommendation of building a pipeline from Alberta, Canada to Texas was kiboshed due to special interest groups. Obama's people claim America must wean itself from dependency on foreign oil, especially from the Middle East. Until there is a viable solution already in place to substitute oil for something else, reality demands America must still find other sources of oil, and what better country but from a close neighbor and ally, Canada.

Over-Regulation

Instead of creating jobs, Obama has put a choke-hold on both small and large businesses by over-regulation. Companies who have the potential to expand or create new jobs or hire extra people fail to go ahead because they are afraid of what new rules may be coming down from the Obama administration.

As it is, the economy can take care of itself, run its course, and begin to rebuild, if only Big Brother can stop trying to oversee, supervise and run the lives of Americans by too much big government.

Obstructionism

The question is: How do you put people to work when you pay them not to work or look for work? How valuable an exercise was it to extend the normal unemployment time to payouts for 99 weeks? Nancy Pelosi claims unemployment creates jobs, perhaps in a very convoluted and circumvented way, but not in reality. (This writer personally knows a friend who was on unemployment and when his term was up, he became very creative and started entrepreneurial work on his own. However, when told unemployment would be extended, he axed that work and sat home for some more weeks, and be paid to do so.) That's why unemployment figures continue to stay high. Why work when there is no incentive to work?

Recreational

When a person is out of work, he/she does not go out and spend money he/she does not have. At the same time, when the country is in dire straits financially, unemployment through the roof, why does President Obama persist in taking advantage of presidential rights by taking a very expensive eleven-day vacation in Martha's Vineyard? Why not show some austerity and restraint in a time of need, by not having an expansive entourage, a cavalcade of 45 cars, and a humongous bus built in Canada. Why did they not purchase an American-built bus, or is there such a thing anymore?

Protectionism

While people are losing jobs or cannot find one, why is it necessary for UN representatives to be given a 3% raise when their salaries are already 20% higher than that of a normal American Federal worker. Plus, these people don't pay taxes. Could this money not have gone to better use, like create jobs?

In conclusion, the latest stats project that if a person loses his/her job today, his chances of finding another job within the month is 70%. If a person has not had a job for a year, his chances of finding another job is 90%. As of August, there were no new jobs created. With these dismal statistics, a gloomy job picture only points to Obama, not the Republicans.

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