We got used to the president making strong promises and then caving — from closing Guantanamo to not extending the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Now he’s making strong promises he’s already broken. He’s like a political version of the Guy Pearce character in Memento — he’s figured out a way to break promises outside of the limitations of linear time.
Having broken through the limitations of linear time, he’s also like Guy Pearce in Time Machine.
He’s more like sometime-Avenger Hank Pym, always embarking on big, ill-advised, projects with no concern for the possible consequences. Obamacare = Ultron.
“lower taxes, remove all regulation, increase oil supply ===> lower gas prices derp!”
imbeciles. oil companies speculate! they forge futures contracts! they set prices before selling. the market doesn’t determine the motherfucking prices; oil companies do. this isn’t simple supply and demand economics. this shit is hardcore.
You’re right; what was I thinking? Supply doesn’t matter. Price never reflects that. All these global warming alarmists are wrong that depleting oil reserves necessarily leads to an increase in prices. And a ‘futures’ contract has nothing to do with total supply at all. And transportation and insurance is free so that adds nothing to the price - or futures - whatsoever.
Everything is supply and demand. Even an oil cartel with absolute authority over access cannot - without outright legalized coercion from government - set prices independent of the consumer’s ability and willingness to purchase. Such pressure leads to searches for alternatives, including decreases in use. That these decisions and considerations are being made with respect to a futures exchange is essentially irrelevant to supply and demand’s effects; at most, the price reflecting this information is delayed or temporarily obfuscated.
With respect to “woeful ignorance of economics,” please see my post on “The Calculation Problem and Price Theory.” I’m curious if your intellectual rebut to that post will also include the word “derp.”
I’m ambivalent about the legislation…but, assuming this was genuine conviction and not political posturing, I respect Gov. Brewer a little more for vetoing it.
I think we’ve gone over most of these before—so I won’t rehash all of the issues in detail. I don’t give Obama full credit in any of those situations—though I think most of them he did most of what he claimed he would do.
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Regarding the other issues you raised:
Lobbyists - There is a policy. There have been waivers for people like Sebelius who have lobbied in the past. There are also some state lobbyists or people like Holder who lobbied a long time ago. I’ll give Obama a 75% compliance on that one.
Of course they lobbied “in the past”, that doesn’t excuse the nominations. He said he wouldn’t appoint lobbyists, then he did so on the first day, and on many days after that. It’s not as if several months had passed and his perfect nominee happened to have been recently lobbying, and he asked for a waiver. He appointed more than a dozen lobbyists to positions where they’d have influence over the industries they lobbied for…and he did it in less than two weeks. Politifact called this promise broken less than two months after the inauguration.
On posting bills in advance - I’ll give you this one. Obama didn’t keep that promise. On the other hand, it wasn’t really a practical promise. There have been huge increases in transparency—but when the government is going to shut down in a few hours, you can’t hold a bill for five days.
You get a point for a good example. But it doesn’t matter much, because he broke this promise only a week after inauguration, by signing his very first bill, the Ledbetter Act, after only two days. He didn’t even post it until after the signing. There are more examples. In fact, he broke this promise on the first ten bills he signed, and dozens of times after that, just in 2009.
On signing statements - Since this is the area that requires some actual legal analysis, I’m going to pass on this one. I didn’t follow Bush’s signing statements closely enough to compare them with Obama’s.
This seems pretty simple: he said he wouldn’t use them, then did. Not a lot else to it.
Not saying I dig our taxes here in CA but dude… you need a statistics class. Correlation does not equal causation. They’ll teach you that in the class.
But correlation does indicate…correlation. I actually doubt the state income tax has as much to do with it as the drastic differences in the nature of the two state governments. Texas’ corporate environment is far more attractive: property values are lower, cost-of-living - and, as a result, cost-of-doing-business - is lower, and it’s a right-to-work state. All that means it’s easy to do business, and do it profitably.
The lack of income tax does help, though, by presumably increasing sales tax revenue as people spend more (because they have more to spend), and increasing business investment (same reason).
50 Cent did not disappoint. He ordered a grapefruit soda. The waiter brings him the grapefruit soda. And then 50 Cent said the greatest thing anyone could ever say when you see a grapefruit soda…He looks at the waiter and says, “Why isn’t this purple?” And it took me a few seconds, and then I realized, “Oh my god, 50 Cent has no idea what a grapefruit is!”… I was like, “Everybody in the restaurant, you need to SHUT UP right now cuz a waiter’s about to explain to a grown man what a grapefruit is.
Recent studies have shown that the wage gap shrinks—or even reverses—when relevant factors are taken into account and comparisons are made between men and women in similar circumstances. In a 2010 study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30, the research firm Reach Advisors found that women earned an average of 8% more than their male counterparts. Given that women are outpacing men in educational attainment, and that our economy is increasingly geared toward knowledge-based jobs, it makes sense that women’s earnings are going up compared to men’s.
He was elected without actual achievement, and he was given a Nobel Prize without actual achievement … naturally, he’s learned that actual achievement isn’t that important. That’s not a good lesson for a President to learn.
