Obamateurism of the Day
posted at 8:05 am on November 13, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama demanded and received $787 billion in stimulus spending to keep unemployment below … 8%. Now that unemployment has hit 10.2%, did Obama take some responsibility for having blown his economic predictions and for pushing a failed, expensive policy? Not exactly. In his address announcing a “jobs summit” yesterday, Obama shifted the blame onto — employers:
As I’ve said from the start of this crisis, hiring often takes time to catch up to economic growth. And given the magnitude of the economic turmoil that we’ve experienced, employers are reluctant to hire.
Small businesses and large firms are demanding more of their employees, their increasing their hours, and adding temporary workers — but these companies have not yet been willing to take the steps necessary to hire again.
Have not yet been willing? Maybe Obama thinks of companies as Scrooge McDucks, sitting on piles of cash and lighting cigars with Benjamins — that’s how Nancy Pelosi thinks of insurance companies with their villainous 3% profit margins — but this as absurd a statement on the economy as one will find. Companies aren’t willfully refusing to hire people. They don’t have any work for them, nor do they have the revenues to afford more employees.
Plus, let’s not forget all of the signals Obama has sent on taxes. Firms that might have been inclined to invest in expansion are holding onto whatever cash they have in preparation for the big increases that will have to come to pay for Obama’s big-government programs. Maybe if Obama dropped the budget-busting agenda and lowered the corporate tax rates, they’d be inclined to expand. But then he wouldn’t be able to take credit for all of those “saved or created” jobs any longer …
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at obamaisms@edmorrissey.com with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
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The man is beyond stuck on stupid.
D2Boston on November 13, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Exactly!!!
No one’s spending, no one’s investing because everyone is scared, and worried. Criminey, who has $15,000 lying around to pay for health care? I sure as hell don’t. My health care now, is a fraction of that. I’m scared to death.
Obama has no one but himself, and his idiotic policies to thank for this. It’s ALL on you pal!
capejasmine on November 13, 2009 at 11:44 AM
See! This is the type of analysis and insight you get when the country elects a President that has never held a real job a day in his life. This moron hasn’t a clue. Doesn’t he even read? Companies are not increasing their hours….companies are putting many employees on part-time shifts. I guess he figures seasonal holiday workers should not be temporary, but rather hired full time. God!, is this guy ever a moron! I REALLY want to know if he ever took a basic Econ 101 course.
Fed45 on November 13, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Bleeds Blue on November 13, 2009 at 9:04 AM
Fed45 on November 13, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Well, you’ll never know that, because he won’t release his transcripts.
jana on November 13, 2009 at 11:58 AM
This is probably not Obama’s fault, but whomever released the transcription of his remarks can’t even get basic grammar right. The bold item should be THEY’RE. As in THEY ARE. (And yes, I checked, it’s in the original. Not Ed’s doing either.)
How ’bout a basic spelling and grammar summit for this administration?
Hawkins1701 on November 13, 2009 at 12:49 PM
So…lemme see if I understand this. Barry said unemployment would be below 8%. So, these companies are not obeying Barry and hiring; regardless of whether they can afford to hire. They should just start hiring because Barry wants unemployment below 8%. Is that what he’s saying? ;-)
Fed45 on November 13, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Putz
ya2daup on November 13, 2009 at 1:24 PM
For clarity and to avoid misunderstanding: Precedent Putz
ya2daup on November 13, 2009 at 1:25 PM
One Colossal Load of Bull-$hit after another.
You can’t name ONE THING this Socialist interloper has done to promote free enterprise.
Who in hell ever voted this Nightmare into the Oval Office?
franksalterego on November 13, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Why didn’t these idiots have the summit last January? We are adding thousands of jobs. In India and china.
seven on November 13, 2009 at 2:25 PM
This Dr. Deviant in Chief is going to blame the consumers in Jan. 2010, for not spending more on X-mas shopping, you watch.
Schadenfreude on November 13, 2009 at 2:31 PM
For his Econ elective, he skipped Econ 101: Markets — and went straight into Econ 465: Current Issues in Applied Marxism.
cthulhu on November 13, 2009 at 2:57 PM
Exactly! I am not hiring again until his ass is gone.
khacha on November 13, 2009 at 6:00 PM
This is how most companies get around all the BS in CA.
DSchoen on November 13, 2009 at 6:49 PM
BA in Poli Sci from Columbia via Occidental – $160,000 + in today’s dollars.
JD from Harvard – $140,000 + in today’s dollars.
A President with no understanding of how business works – Useless in today’s economy.
papapoli on November 13, 2009 at 7:17 PM
Obama seems to think money grows on trees. As nearly as I can tell, there is a mystical magic money machine that’s going to pay for all his miracle-working government programs.
He doesn’t seem to realize that most people refer to his money machine as the IRS, and I woudl guess he’s hever had the business end of an audit pointed at him. He also seems never to have had to face a bureaucrat possessed of a rulebook but devoid of the common sense God gave a domesticated turkey.
Apparently, with all his mad l33t skillz at community organizing and speechifying, he’s never even had to come up with the money to meet a payroll without someone to bankroll his endeavor.
His opinion about employers seems to rank (or reek) right along with his expressed opinion about the economics of the medical profession: Ignorant, thoughtless, and stupid.
Confutus on November 13, 2009 at 10:05 PM
I agree with many of the posters above, especially those who observed “stuck beyond stupid” and other pointing out that bozo and his goon brigade have attacked the private sector relentlessly, driving them into deep underground bunkers.
Employers cannot hire in this climate and now with unemployment increasing and increasing (now at 17.5%), sales plummeting for months in a row, the whole system is circling the bowl.
This past Friday, due to the KSM announcement, maybe a lot of people missed the new unemployment numbers? Hmmm maybe that was the point?
This is the one model where unemployment is NOT a lagging indicator. Yeah thats right, there is one exception to that tired old saw.
We are following the same model that occurred in the late 1920′s.
dogsoldier on November 15, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Actually, Fed, companies that use exempt employees ROUTINELY require them to work 60 and 70 hours a week for a 40 hour paycheck. I’ve been caught in that a couple times. That whole exempt definition needs to be tossed. It allows companies to screw people.
dogsoldier on November 15, 2009 at 11:09 AM
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