How has Obama’s presidency affected your life?
By Tom Quiner
Quiner’s Diner has always maintained that the presidency gets too much credit when things are going well and too much blame when things are going bad.
With that caveat in place, let us take a quick, rational look at how you and I have been affected by Barack Obama’s first term in office.
Americans have seen a $4500 drop in average household income in the Obama years. In fairness, he inherited a damaged economy. His approach of mammoth deficit-increasing stimulus spending hasn’t worked by most honest assessments.
He has increased our nation’s indebtedness by $5.5 trillion dollars. He must surely bear much of this blame for encouraging and signing into law such extravagant spending by Congress. Keep in mind how critical he was of his predecessor for running up the deficit by the same amount, only Obama did it in half the time.
He cut Medicare, which is already racing toward bankruptcy, by $716 Billion in order to fund another new, lavish, and unsustainable entitlement, Obamacare. Obamacare will cost us $2.6 Trillion.
He has put 23 million on the unemployment rolls. Even that rate under represents the misery of American workers since it doesn’t count the millions who have given up looking for employment.
He has put 47 million onto food stamps as the poverty rate has risen to the same level it was back in 1966, fifteen percent.
Five and a half million homes are in foreclosure or in crisis. Mr. Obama doesn’t deserve all the blame for this number, of course, but after nearly four years in office, he deserves some. He can’t keep blaming Bush for everything.
He has embedded $1.9 Trillion in new taxes in his latest budget.
We’ve watched gasoline prices double at the pump as he has restricted drilling for American oil companies and blocked the building of the Keystone Pipeline which would flood us with new oil reserves.
As of last year, his administration had imposed $38 Billion in new regulations on us, a record pace for increasing the government’s grip on our marketplace and our lives. Each single, new regulation imposes a cost on the economy and deters job creation. Some regulations are good and needed. Obama’s expansion of the regulatory state is excessive and is killing jobs.
So how has Obama’s presidency affected your life? Are things better since he took office? In light of the record presented above, the answer from my corner is no. We’re worse off, remarkably worse off, and Mr. Obama does deserve a significant amount of the blame.
What is Barack Obama’s plan to make things better the next four years? Tax the rich. That’s about it.
What is Mitt Romney’s plan? It is remarkably different. He wants to reign in government spending, simplify our tax code, loosen up our overzealous regulatory environment, and get rid of the unsustainable Obamacare entitlement program.
In other words, he is advancing the same types of solutions that Ronald Reagan did, the same ones that created a two decade economic boom.
My vote is for those kinds of solutions.
I don’t trust Mitt Romney. He lies and flip flops constantly in order to pander to votes. I see no empathy or love of the people within this man. I see a love of money. He doesn’t seem authentic and I don’t feel led to vote for him.
And you don’t see any flip flops or pandering from Obama?
Mitt Romney has made a lot of money, he has also created a lot of jobs with that money and given a boatload of it away. It seems like people assume the worst of anyone who makes money. What has he done or not done to make you accuse him of no empathy or an inordinate love of money?
1) I can now stay on my parents insurance until I’m 26, assuring that I’m covered while I look for a job that has insurance.
2) Friends of mine have returned from being shot at in the Middle East.
3) My wife-to-be has more access to affordable contraception so we can plan our family in a responsible way.
4) 3 of my closest friends now have jobs in renewable energy, because companies are hiring based on the tax breaks renewables have been given.
5) I can better afford college with the interest rate drop created by federalizing the student loan program.
Shall I continue?
1. Obama promised to cut average health insurance costs by $2500. He failed. They have increased by $2500, partially because of forcing insurers to keep kids on their parent’s dole longer.
2. Obama is continuing the policy put in place by the previous administration.
3. This comes at the cost of our religious liberties and higher health insurance premiums (see #1).
4. Solyndra. Abound Solar. Beacon Power. Ener1. Energy Conversion Devices. Evergreen Solar, Inc. Mountain Plaza, Inc.Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsens Mills Acquisition Co. Range Fuels. Raser Technologies. Spectrawatt. Thompson River Power LLC. These are all “green energy” companies that took taxpayer money and filed for bankruptcy. It’s called crony capitalism. Tell your friends to enjoy their jobs while they can. They may not be around very long.
5. Average in-state tuition has increased by $1700 per year on Obama’s watch.
My life is excellent and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been collecting 2,200 per month on unemployment for 2 years now. I’ve been collecting an additional $150 per month in food stamps. My rent is paid for through rent assistance up to 1k per month. I’ve been going to college for a Master in Environmental Science Policy which is covered by post 9/11 GI Bill and they offer me a 1.4 K per month BAH and 500 per semester for books. I am livin a dream all thanks to Obama. However, I am not just being lazy and just collecting money and throwing it away. my pursuit in education is making use of the assistance and the people that take advantage of the assistance need to be audited.
Obama is amazing. I think I’ll shut the doors of my business and join you!