Economic Recovery

White House Chief Of Staff Ron Klain Summarizes Joe Biden’s Record In Office After 19 Months!

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White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain has summarized Joe Biden’s record in office after 19 months.

After a period of struggle and disappointment, now Joe Biden’s record is quite amazing for a President in office just a bit more than a year and a half, a truly transformational President!

As Klain describes it in an interview with POLITICO, Joe Biden “has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt.”(Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal)

Biden has brought into law “the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Interstate Highway System)

Biden has accomplished “the most judges confirmed since Kennedy.” (John F. Kennedy)

Biden has accomplished “the second largest health care bill since Johnson.” (Lyndon B. Johnson and Medicare) and (after Barack Obama and the Affordable Care Act)

Biden has “the largest climate change bill in history.” (since Jimmy Carter promoted need for change)

Also, we have seen the first gun control bill since Bill Clinton’s time. (Brady Bill legislation)

And Biden has placed the first African American woman on the Supreme Court (Ketanji Brown Jackson) (After Lyndon B. Johnson placed the first African American man on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall)

Additionally, as many observers have noted, we have seen 9.5 million jobs created; accomplished the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years; forced the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes; lowered drug prices and general health care costs, including insulin costs for Medicare recipients; lowered the national debt; confirmed the most diverse set of judges to the federal bench; accomplished the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the American Rescue Plan to combat the COVID 19 Pandemic; canceled some student loan debt; and passed the CHIPS and Science Act, and the PACT Act to help sick veterans from our wars.

In foreign policy, Biden ended America’s longest war (Afghanistan), which Donald Trump had arranged to end actually three months earlier than Biden; strengthened NATO by adding Finland and Sweden; took out Al Qaeda’s top leader; and come to the defense of Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

Memo To American Jews Who Support Trump: You Are Overlooking History And Are Being Delusional!

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This author and blogger is proud of his Jewish heritage, and pleased that two out of three American Jews support the Democratic Party, which historically, since Franklin D. Roosevelt, stands for the basic values that all decent American Jews believe in: Tolerance, open mindedness, compassion, empathy, decency, social justice!

That does not mean that there have never been Republicans historically who one could find appealing, and even, at times, vote for and support.

But for any American Jew to support Donald Trump, who is a clear cut Fascist with strong tendencies toward Adolf Hitler, not just Benito Mussolini, is shocking beyond belief!

If one voted for Donald Trump as an “outsider” amid thoughts that a businessman with no government experience was worthy of being given a shot at leadership, and had unexplained hatred toward Hillary Clinton in 2016 to motivate you, that is one thing.

But after four years of Donald Trump, not as an outsider, but as the 45th President, and having witnessed what he has wrought, it is beyond understanding why any American Jew would vote for Trump again!

Some would say, oh the economy was going great under Trump, when the economy was already going great under Barack Obama, who took us from the Great Recession to the greatest economic recovery that we have seen in American history, including even Franklin D. Roosevelt before World War II came along!

All that Trump did is continue an economic recovery already in effect for a number of years. And that economic recovery was very uneven, with his push for a massive tax cut for the top one to two percent, which added to the national debt, and now threatens Social Security and Medicare! And 40 percent of the nation cannot afford an emergency $400 expense!

Some would say, oh Trump has done so much for Israel, in moving ahead to recognize Jerusalem as their capital; accept Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria; and promote diplomatic and other ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Israel and Bahrain, which only deepen the conflict over the future of Israel and the Palestinians. Realize that the leaders of those Arab nations are autocrats, corrupt to the core, and have no ethical basis at all toward their own population.

Any intelligent American Jew KNOWS that this is just a ploy for Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off accountability for his corruption, which has led to trial in Israel. It is also simply a way to manipulate that portion of American Jewry that Trump counts upon to help him win reelection, who think that whatever the Israeli government wants, should be supported by the United States.

But this ignores the fact that Barack Obama gave more aid and defense support to Israel through his promotion of the IRON DOME missile system, despite Netanyahu’s hostile attitude toward him, and his collaborating with Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Speaker of the House John Boehner against Obama!

But Donald Trump meanwhile consorts with antisemites and white supremacists, as at Charlottesville in 2017, but also other actions and utterances that incite violence against anyone who disagrees with his destruction of the US Constitution and rule of law! And remember that Richard Spencer, David Duke, and other extremist right wing antisemites love Donald Trump!

Donald Trump is a racist big time, if anyone looks at his history. He promoted racial discrimination in his Queens New York properties, and is infamous for his constant attack on “the Central Park Five”, five young minority men, accused of rape and assault, who he campaigned against, and has refused to admit he was wrong and apologize, when they were shown to be innocent and released after many years.

Donald Trump is a nativist, who has no issue with caging children at the border, a reminder of the early concentration camps which imprisoned Jews and other people, before the extermination concept was formulated in Nazi Germany!

He promotes anti immigrant hysteria, even though his mother was an immigrant, and two of his three wives were immigrants. And despite his close association with Muslim authoritarians, such as Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, he promotes Islamophobia, showing what a total demagogue and hypocrite he is, and his constant attacks on the few Muslim members of Congress!

Donald Trump is also a misogynist, who has abused dozens of women personally, and associates with others who have done the same, and has the gall to brag about it, but also has refused to provide evidence when charges are brought against him. He makes Bill Clinton look like a “choir boy” by comparison!

Donald Trump promotes hatred in his rallies, making people laugh as he ridicules opponents and makes fun of journalists who have been wounded by rubber bullets or tear gas, as he believes all media and all political opponents should be in prison! No other President has ever conducted himself in such a despicable manner! He is still pursuing his goal of putting Hillary Clinton, the Obamas, and Joe Biden in prison, all signs of an authoritarian demagogue!

Donald Trump rejects science, and is responsible for the mass loss of life in the COVID 19 Pandemic, and encourages his followers NOT to wear masks or practice social distancing, including at his rallies. At the same time, he thinks of his followers as “disgusting”, and calls veterans who have died in wars “suckers” and “losers”!

One might say that Donald Trump has a Jewish son in law, Jared Kushner; a Jewish Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin; and a key Jewish adviser, Stephen Miller; along with others who work for him who are Jewish. But these Jews represent an extremely privileged class, who put their basic Jewish values aside for the gaining of power and obscene wealth!

Donald Trump has lied more than 20,000 times in office, and has had, by far, the most corrupt administration and number of corrupt appointees ever seen in any Presidency, so how can any respectable American Jew support this?

If Donald Trump is reelected, he will become ever more a threat to the basic Jewish values that matter, and any American Jew who contributes to that horror, will go down in history, condemned for their inaction when they could have taken steps to end the nightmare of an American version of Benito Mussolini at the least, and god forbid, Adolf Hitler at the most!

88 Months of Job Growth, All Time Record, So Future Is Economic Recession, Just A Question Of When And How Severe

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America has experienced 88 months of job growth and an improving economy, an all time record, so the future is economic recession, with the only question being when and how severe it will be.

It is like gravity, in that what goes up must come down, and Donald Trump has been bragging as if he created the economic growth, when it was the contribution of Barack Obama, who was overseer over the greatest economic recovery in American history, and without war.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is credited with helping to solve the Great Depression in the 1930s, but it took until war spending for World War II for the recovery to be totally successful, while Obama avoided a major war, and created the economic conditions that now Trump is making it as if he did it all by himself in the past year.

Trump came into office with a great economy, while Obama came in at the worst time since Herbert Hoover, and had to deal with what we call the Great Recession.

As I write this, the stock market has had its two worst days in two years, losing 666 points on Friday, and 1175 on Monday, making for the greatest two day loss in stock market history. The market actually went down 1579 before it revived to 1175 by the close of trading. So it went down in the past two days by 1840, a total of seven percent of the stock market.

It will be interesting to see how Donald Trump reacts to this, since he loves to give himself credit for the improvement in the stock market, even though it was steadily rising under Barack Obama, who he will never give credit to on anything.

if the economy falters, Trump will lose a lot of his supporters, and his public opinion polls will collapse into the 20s instead of the low to mid 30s where it is right now.

Barack Obama State Of The Union Speech One Of Leadership, But Also Asking For BiPartisanship!

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President Barack Obama gave an outstanding State of the Union speech tonight, but one with an attempt to promote bipartisanship as he begins his second term.

He asked for cooperation to avoid constant budget battles that undermine economic recovery, and reflect badly on our image internationally, considering that we are a world leader.

He called for investments in energy, infrastructure, and education, including a preschool program for all young children.

He called for action on climate change, and indicated he would take executive action if nothing was done on the issue.

He called for a program of immigration reform that apparently impressed Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, in an interview on CNN after the speech.

He backed the need for Medicare and Social Security reforms, as long as they did not harm the long term stability of the programs.

He appealed for basic gun legislation to try to cut down the widespread violence, with more than 1,400 people killed by gun violence in the past month and a half alone!

He informed us that half of the remaining 68,000 troops in Afghanistan were coming home within the next year. This made clear his goal to focus on domestic reform, and wind down the overseas commitment of military forces.

He called for an increase in the minimum wage, and for prevention of laws that interfere with the right to vote, informing us that this is basic justice for all Americans.

Any reasonable person would have to say that his speech set a series of goals that were very mainstream and reasonable, but of course, the opposition will see it otherwise. One can hope that a lot of his ideas and initiatives can be accomplished, but it will not be easy to do so!

“It’s The Economy, Stupid!”: How Obama Is Helped, Despite Economic Slowdown

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The latest news on the economy is very disconcerting, as we saw the smallest job growth in eleven months, 69,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate inching up to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent.

According to economists, the Great Recession started in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, and we are now into three years of “economic recovery”. After losing 7 million jobs, we have regained 4.2 million of them in the past three years.

Economic statistics can be used to prove or disprove any point. Obviously, the economy is a big problem, and Republican nominee Mitt Romney banks on that, and keeps on hammering it home, and will do that even more with the new economic figures.

But it is also important to realize that the economic recovery, the slowest since World War II, could also be seen in a different perspective, that the Great Recession has never really ended, and that the Republican opposition, by resisting any jobs legislation in the past year and a half, when they have controlled the House of Representatives, has massively contributed to it.

There is plenty of blame to go around, and Barack Obama and the Democrats must share the blame, but to claim that the GOP has no responsibility is ridiculous, and those who would claim that a President McCain would have had a better economic record must be smoking something that promotes delusions!

And the good aspect of the economic problem is that in seven of the ten “swing states” that the Obama Victory Fund contributes funds from sale of merchandise, the unemployment rate is lower, often substantially lower than in the nation at large.

This includes the following:

Iowa 5.1%
New Hampshire 5.0%
Virginia 5.6%
Wisconsin 6.7%
Ohio 7.4%
Pennsylvania 7.4%
Colorado 7.9%

The unemployment rate is higher in:

Florida 8.7%
North Carolina 9.4%
Nevada 11.7%

It should also be pointed out that in 34 states out of 50, two thirds, the unemployment rate is lower than the national average.

So Mitt Romney using the issue of unemployment in seven of the ten”swing states” is not going to ring as genuine, and if Obama wins those seven states, he can lose Florida, North Carolina, and Nevada, and still win a second term handily!

Two Prestigious Scholars Blame The Republican Party For The Stalemate In The 112th Congress

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Two well known scholars, Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution and Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, have recently published a book and authored articles criticizing the Republican Party for the stalemate in the 112th Congress.

The Republican Party is blamed for its refusal to hold members of their party in Congress accountable for their wild statements; is seen as totally against compromise; refuses to accept facts, evidence and science; lacks respect for the legitimacy of the opposition party and its members; and is so far outside the mainstream as to be alarming for any hope of accomplishment of any goals or programs!

The two people most responsible for this extremism are former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and Grover Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform. But also the filibuster has been abused in the Senate, and prevented many executive branch appointments from being confirmed, both in the government agencies and in the court system.

The reaction to Roe V. Wade after 1973 mobilized social conservatives, while the tax revolt in California in 1978 mobilized anti tax activists. Also, the South turned conservative Republican after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s; and the rise of conservative talk radio, and the growing impact of Fox News on cable, also had a great impact on what has become a growing stalemate and gridlock.

Health care reform, climate change, economic recovery, deficits, and debt issues have become a chasm between the two major political parties. Polarization has become the norm, and is a dangerous trend which may continue, if the voters again send a confusing message of a divided Congress in the 2012 Congressional elections. The Tea Party movement, if it grows, will further create conflict at a time when we need negotiation and compromise!

This assessment is extremely worrisome, as it means that our national government may be totally paralyzed, when we need true statesmen in both parties dealing with our important national agenda!

Brisk Economic Growth In 4th Quarter Good Sign!

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Great news has been announced by the government this morning, indicating that we have witnessed the fastest growth quarter in six years in the last three months of 2009.

The economy grew by an annualized 5.7 percent, way above what was expected, and far better than the annualized 2.2 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

The biggest fear, however, is that we could be in the midst of what economists call a “jobless” economic recovery, so there is a great need for an aggressive job creation program this year, but one wonders if the opposition Republican party will work to undermine such an event by lack of legislative support, particularly in the Senate. 🙁 Let’s hope they do what is right for the American people!