Wrote two stories for our local newspaper from Tuesday’s meeting of the Floyd County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors.
As usual, bad budget news dominates. More cuts from the Commonwealth, more changes in the budget for a county living on a shoestring, just like most of us.
Saw more fallout from a bad economy while covering Circuit Court on Monday. More theft cases. People steal more when times are bad.
There’s little doubt that the current recession/depression is testing America’s ability to bounce back, both nationally and locally. At the Floyd County Board meeting Tuesday, Social Services director Carl Ayers said applications for assistance are at an all-time high, driven by pleas for help from those who have never sought welfare in their lives.
“These are people who have worked all their lives and now face the prospect of no jobs for the future,” Ayers said. “Their unemployment benefits are gone and the jobs have not come back.”
“The national mood is souring,” writes pollster Mark Penn in Politico. “While the administration has been saying the economy is on the uptick, the only measure most families care about — unemployment — is reaching new highs. To most families, a jobless recovery is no recovery at all.”
Empty rhetoric may have served Barack Obama well as a candidate, especially for a nation soured on eight years of disaster from the Bush administration but Americans now want substance behind the words and results from the promises.
Open the classifieds section of a newspaper and most areas and you find columns of foreclosure sales. Check the docket of bankruptcy courts and you find a backlog of filings. People are broke.
According to Trans-Union, one of the nation’s three main credit monitoring agencies, the average American owes $193,121 on their home and 6.25 percent of them are 60 days or more behind in their payments. In California and the District of Columbia, the average consumer owes more than $350,000.
Meanwhile, the federal government falls deeper and deeper into debt, with the federal deficit hitting a record $1.42 trillion at the end of the last fiscal year on Sept. 30. The actual federal debt is more than $12 trillion, which amounts to $38,974.34 for every man, woman and child in this nation.
Although proponents of health care reform claim the bills currently before Congress will not drive up the federal debt, they most likely will because fewer Americans have jobs or pay taxes in this down economy. You don’t need an economics degree from Princeton to see where this is heading.
So what’s the answer? Damned if I know. We’re in trouble, serious trouble and all we get from our elected leaders on both sides of the political fence is lip service. Democrats blame Republicans, Republicans blame Democrats and amid all that finger pointing the situation just gets worse.
And Barack Obama lacks the leadership to pull things together.
In his Politico column, Mark Penn argues:
As a longtime centrist Democrat, I would like to see the president make creating jobs his top domestic priority, I would encourage an incremental approach on health care that did not cost so much upfront and I believe staying strong in Afghanistan — the country that harbored those who directly attacked New York and Washington — is pivotal to being regarded seriously by our foes.
But as a point of strategy, the president has to get off the fence — either energizing the left or strengthening the center. And he might satisfy the left on defense and the center on health care or vice versa. The pitfalls he needs to avoid are halfway decisions all around. That path threatens to undermine support and will build bewilderment, not consensus. He has to find his voice in these areas and deliver it loud and clear. That will lift the country out of this growing anxiety and win back its overwhelming confidence.
Obama’s problems have driven his job approval rating below 50 percent, according to latest tracking from Rasmussen Reports. Even Sarah Palin has a higher public approval rating right now than the President, Rasmussen says.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of likely voters say it is at least somewhat likely the next president of the United States will be a Republican, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
The number has been trending in this direction since Democrat Barack Obama took office in January and is up 14 points since then.
While many still argue that Obama “inherited” America’s problems from the Republicans and George W. Bush, polls show that fewer and fewer Americans buy that claim.
Scott Rasmussen and Democratic pollster Doug Shoen write:
The percentage of respondents who believe that Mr. Obama “inherited” the economic situation has dropped steadily over the year from a high of 84% in February down to 63% in this latest poll. This week’s Rasmussen Reports poll shows an even bigger drop, with 49% of respondents blaming Mr. Bush and 45% blaming Mr. Obama. This is the first time in Rasmussen Reports’ polls that less than 55% blame Mr. Bush for the country’s economic problems. It is fair to conclude that by the beginning of next year, the problems of America will be Mr. Obama’s problems, and references to his predecessor will increasingly fall on deaf ears.
Polls show Obama is losing support of the independents who put him in office in 2008 and without those independents he will be a one-term, failed President.
26 thoughts on “Obama’s failue is America’s failure”
You know Chick, when I was younger I thought Lee’s song was ridiculous. Now I know it is the truth. We never seen to reach our ideals and end up realizing that is all there is.
Sandy
Peggy Lee, start singing that song again.
Thank you Chick. I’ve been fighting the system since 1964 and lost. I’ve been a part of small districts in Los Angeles since I heard Senator Goldwater speak. My flag always was to downsize the federal government and allow the people to decide how to clean up their own problems. The education system in Los Angeles County had no concept that they were faulty in their academics. We headed for the L.A. Board of Education only to find that the head honcho had her children with mine in a private school. My distrust of our government at all levels caused me to join a new group that would become the LP. It went downhill from there.
I have written of why the American voters are often wrong in their choices and leaving the family without a head of the household.
Every damn problem America has comes directly from the family not doing their job of directing their kids into a life of knowing right from wrong. I’ve been hated for my opinions. I have called this “Survival of values.” I will not go into the details here as nobody agrees and the powers will ban me again and again.
We breed sheep terrified of the end of times.
We elect politicians who dare not say they believe in evolution. I don’t like sheep as they smell and damage crops. We cannot even threaten a revolution as too many Americans want to be told what not to do.
Sandy
Good question, Sandra Price. How do we fix the situation?
I’m humbled that you ask me that question. (Though I recognize that you may be tossing the question up to anyone that wishes to answer. And there are many CHB minds with more intellect and knowledge than I possess.) Since I’m on my second glass of wine on an otherwise empty stomach, I’ll throw out an answer.
Permit me to begin by telling you what I don’t think the answer is. A Third Party. There is no financial support or voting numbers for a third party challenge. And if a third party candidate has sufficient financial assistance, they are probably already bought and sold by the corporate masters. Thus, the newly elected would become part of the status quo. We’d be saying that the new boss was same as the old boss.
The system is broken. It’s like bringing in a young, idealistic person of integrity into a corrupt police department. Within a year, the rookie is either corrupt, or has gone to work for a different agency. Unfortunately, politicians seldom, if ever, go to work for a different agency because of conscience.
I believe that the first step to solution is for the people to get away from labels. Right. Left. Conservative. Liberal. Republican. Democrat. These labels are used to divide the people. As long as we’re divided, we can’t organize. The People need to see that the two major parties are taking turns violating us. We need to get away from partisanship.
How do we fix the situation? Certainly not with bandages or even tourniquets. Too late for that. The system is in ICU on life support. Here is the long answer in abbreviated form. REVOLUTION.
Gasp! That sounds so radical, I can’t believe it came from my fingertips. But, yes, revolution. If the people come together, they will regain control over the government.
The nice thing about this concept, is that no revolution necessarily has to take place. If the politicians even suspected the ignorant slaves were going to make a move, they would fall in line without hesitation.
Government representatives are not stupid. They don’t mind pushing us around. They don’t mind abusing us, taking our money, or even placing us in harm’s way. But when the united murmur of discontent begins to move across the nation, the politicians take note, and back away. They will only back as far as necessary to soften the grumbling, or soothe the majority. And they will return to violating us further as soon as possible in increment steps. If the People stand together, the people will win.
Anything less than the people coming together is, in my opinion, an exercise in futility.
Aren’t you tired of futility? Shouldn’t every one be?
Good analysis Chick. Now how do we fix the situation? Who can we trust to turn this miserable mess into a step in the right direction? Could it be that the efficiency standards are so incredibly bad that neither side of the aisle can even recognize their faults? We can either make changes in the methods of operation in the Congress or march on the Capital with guns and teabags waving in the breeze like a bunch of strippers with their tassles.
Stick around as Doug will bring up many discussions through his “Rant” and all are invited to add their input.
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