Obama's lame duck State of the Union Speech: will anyone watch or care?

healthcare for almost everyone has been going down in price every year for a long time right? Right???

 

I maybe could have believed this the last few years, when the US economy was really hurting. Or even afterward when things started to pick up slowly. Maybe. But now this argument just sounds silly. So for years people were looking for jobs and it was SO hard finding them, that they have just "given up" trying to find one, even now in 2015? What, they're homeless or committed suicide or something? How long can you keep this dumb argument going?

Please stop believing what the rest of the conservative sheep bleat and use evidence and statistics to back up your claims. Otherwise, you look and sound like this:

 

Please compare and contrast your choice of Presidencies to Mr. Obama's to illustrate your evaluation.

For the most part, with the obstructionism and hyper-partisanship in Congress the nation is running on autopilot; not much has really been effected in the last six years. He is engaged on a rational, limited basis in the civil wars of Asia but not blundering into nation-bleeding commitments. Most of the economic policy has been enacted by the Fed. He struggles to get even rudimentary bureaucratic appointments approved (ATF?), and the programs he would like to promote get their funding cut. I think you just suffer from accepting political propaganda as fact rather than the posturing for power that it is.

 

You fans of Bush-Cheney's wars and torture are destroying this country quickly, but think it was such a great foreign policy.

We will be dealing with the needless hatred your stupidity has engendered against this country. Not to mention trillions of dollars down the rat hole.

 

How does a godly man such as yourself say this when looking at the loss of human life the occurred in the 8 years prior to Barack Obama's term?

 

Lol. Has he claimed to be godly like many of the evangelicals who supported the Iraq War?

 

You really are embarrassing yourself.

The following appeared in Wednesday's Washington Post. It was co-written by France’s minister of foreign affairs, Britain’s foreign secretary, Germany’s federal minister for foreign affairs, and the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy:

Give diplomacy with Iran a chance

 

As we all know, Jesus was an American so he holds the lives of Americans in a bit higher regard than those of people in the Mddle East... you know, the region where Jesus was born and lived. Wait... what?!?

 

I thought it was one of the best speeches he's given in a very long time. He should have uncorked that early enough before the mid-terms to do some good. Where was he? Taking a nap?

 

Why are wingnuts always profoundly wrong about everything?



Forbes

Obama Outperforms Reagan On Jobs, Growth And Investing

This is the best private sector jobs creation performance in American history




Unemployment Reagan v Obama

Bob Deitrick: ”President Reagan has long been considered the best modern economic President. So we compared his performance dealing with the oil-induced recession of the 1980s with that of President Obama and his performance during this ‘Great Recession.’

“As this unemployment chart shows, President Obama’s job creation kept unemployment from peaking at as high a level as President Reagan, and promoted people into the workforce faster than President Reagan.

“President Obama has achieved a 6.1% unemployment rate in his sixth year, fully one year faster than President Reagan did. At this point in his presidency, President Reagan was still struggling with 7.1% unemployment, and he did not reach into the mid-low 6% range for another full year. So, despite today’s number, the Obama administration has still done considerably better at job creating and reducing unemployment than did the Reagan administration.

“We forecast unemployment will fall to around 5.4% by summer, 2015. A rate President Reagan was unable to achieve during his two terms.”

What about the Labor Participation Rate?

Much has been made about the poor results of the labor participation rate, which has shown more stubborn recalcitrance as this rate remains higher even as jobs have grown.



Deitrick: “The labor participation rate adds in jobless part time workers and those in marginal work situations with those seeking full time work. This is not a “hidden” unemployment. It is a measure tracked since 1900 and called ‘U6.’ today by the BLS.

“As this chart shows, the difference between reported unemployment and all unemployment – including those on the fringe of the workforce – has remained pretty constant since 1994.




Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics – Databases, Tables and Calculators by Subject

“Labor participation is affected much less by short-term job creation, and much more by long-term demographic trends. As this chart from the BLS shows, as the Baby Boomers entered the workforce and societal acceptance of women working changed, labor participation grew.

“Now that ‘Boomers’ are retiring we are seeing the percentage of those seeking employment decline. This has nothing to do with job availability, and everything to do with a highly predictable aging demographic.

“What’s now clear is that the Obama administration policies have outperformed the Reagan administration policies for job creation and unemployment reduction. Even though Reagan had the benefit of a growing Boomer class to ignite economic growth, while Obama has been forced to deal with a retiring workforce developing special needs. During the eight years preceding Obama there was a net reduction in jobs in America. We now are rapidly moving toward higher, sustainable jobs growth.”

Economic growth, including manufacturing, is driving jobs

When President Obama took office America was gripped in an offshoring boom, started years earlier, pushing jobs to the developing world. Manufacturing was declining in America, and plants were closing across the nation.

This week the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) released its manufacturing report, and it surprised nearly everyone. The latest Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) scored 59, two points higher than July and about that much higher than prognosticators expected. This represents 63 straight months of economic expansion, and 25 consecutive months of manufacturing expansion.

New orders were up 3.3 points to 66.7, with 15 consecutive months of improvement and reaching the highest level since April, 2004 – five years prior to Obama becoming President. Not surprisingly, this economic growth provided for 14 consecutive months of improvement in the employment index. Meaning that the “grass roots” economy made its turn for the better just as the DJIA was reaching those highs back in 2013 – demonstrating that index is still the leading indicator for jobs that it has famously always been.

As the last 15 months have proven, jobs and economy are improving, and investors are benefiting

The stock market has converted the long-term growth in jobs and GDP into additional gains for investors. Recently the S&P has crested 2,000 – reaching new all time highs. Gains made by investors earlier in the Obama administration have further grown, helping businesses raise capital and improving the nest eggs of almost all Americans. And laying the foundation for recent, and prolonged job growth.



Investment Returns Reagan v Obama

Deitrick: ”While most Americans think they are not involved with the stock market, truthfully they are. Via their 401K, pension plan and employer savings accounts 2/3 of Americans have a clear vested interest in stock performance.

“As this chart shows, over the first 67 months of their presidencies there is a clear “winner” from an investor’s viewpoint. A dollar invested when Reagan assumed the presidency would have yielded a staggering 190% return. Such returns were unheard of prior to his leadership.

“However, it is undeniable that President Obama has surpassed the previous president. Investors have gained a remarkable 220% over the last 5.5 years! This level of investor growth is unprecedented by any administration, and has proven quite beneficial for everyone.


“In 2009, with pension funds underfunded and most private retirement accounts savaged by the financial meltdown and Wall Street losses, Boomers and Seniors were resigned to never retiring. The nest egg appeared gone, leaving the ‘chickens’ to keep working. But now that the coffers have been reloaded increasingly people age 55 – 70 are happily discovering they can quit their old jobs and spend time with family, relax, enjoy hobbies or start new at-home businesses from their laptops or tablets. It is due to a skyrocketing stock market that people can now pursue these dreams and reduce the labor participation rates for ‘better pastures.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhar...performs-reagan-on-jobs-growth-and-investing/

 

Opposing parties oppose, even to the point of being illogical. It's the same power play of tribalism that produces civil wars between like religions or races. It's about power not philosophy. Us peons just buy into the propaganda so we have a side, where we aren't facing this absurdity of life all alone. We get our power by proxy.

 

Try labor force participation rate.........

 

Yeah, you freaks keep hanging on to that.

 

Never mind the predicted decrease in labor force participation over the remainder of this decade, or the increased age of the labor force, or that unemployment numbers outpace the drop in labor participation.

 

But whats the point in comparing Reagan's unemployment to Obama's when one had a massive increase in workforce participation and one had a massive drop? That's incredibly dishonest.

 

Also too-

TIME

Number of Uninsured Americans Near Historic Low
Zeke J Miller @ZekeJMiller Dec. 18, 2014

New federal government data shows the percentage of Americans without health insurance was at or near historic lows this year following the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, and appears certain to fall to record levels next year.

The data released Thursday from the National Center for Health Statistics’ National Health Interview Survey found that 11.3 percent of Americans were without coverage in the second quarter of 2014, down from 13.1 percent in the first quarter and 14.4 percent throughout 2013.

http://time.com/3639785/uninsured-obamacare-record/



Wall Street Journal

ObamaCare Is Slowing Health Inflation

The president's reform is contributing to an historic slowdown in spending, which is good news for wages.

By JASON FURMAN

For decades a common refrain was that the rapid rise in health spending hurt the competitiveness of American businesses and ate into workers' take-home pay. Businesses and politicians from both sides of the aisle agreed that something had to be done to slow the growth of health-care costs. New data Monday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that we are making important progress. From 2010 to 2012, health spending grew at an annual rate of just 1.1% in real per capita terms—the lowest rate in the 50 years we have been collecting these data, and a small fraction of the 6% rate that inaugurated the past decade.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304617404579304483562111024

 

Oh look tallanvor

Another poll showing the President at a 19 month high with 50% approval.

Yep! That SOTU sucked!

Gallup Daily

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is openly complaining that Obama is ignoring the results of the midterm election, but the polling is evidence that the White House is correct to ignore the election. Obama has gotten more popular since he began taking executive action and going on the offensive after the election. President Obama’s State Of The Union address has also helped his standing with the public.

The president is countering many of the unpopular positions of congressional Republicans by standing up for the middle class, workers, Hispanics, and more benefits for families. Obama has taken control of the national agenda and put Republicans on the defensive. The polling demonstrates that the more aggressive agenda setting coming from the White House is popular with many Americans.

 

These guys whine and complain about their own behavior. It's quite remarkable.

 

Good new that this proposal has been scrapped. Quite the political miscalculation.


Obama drops proposal to cut tax benefits of 529 college savings plans

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-drops-proposal-to-cut-tax-benefits-of-529-college-savings-plans/2015/01/27/5f3f429a-a675-11e4-a2b2-776095f393b2_story.html