Team Obama claims Fundamentals of the economy are sound
 

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090315/obama_economy.html

Obama aides reverse campaign rhetoric, call general economic conditions fundamentally sound

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of President Barack Obama's economic advisers said Sunday that the economy is fundamentally sound, a striking reversal from the Democrat's campaign rhetoric as his administration now guides the nation's financial health amid dire conditions.

Obama's Democratic allies pleaded for patience for an administration hitting the two-month mark this week, while Republicans said the White House's plans ignore small business and the immediate need to fix what ails the economy.

During the fall campaign, Obama mercilessly mocked his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, for declaring, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Obama's team painted the veteran senator as out of touch and failing to grasp the challenges facing the country.

On Sunday, economic adviser Christina Romer was asked during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the fundamentals of the economy were sound. "Of course they are sound," she replied.

"The fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology," she said. "We know that -- that temporarily we're in a mess, right? We've seen huge job loss, we've seen very large falls in GDP. So certainly in the short run we're in a -- in a bad situation."

Just a week ago, White House Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag declared that "fundamentally, the economy is weak."

The seesaw message from the new administration drew sharp criticism from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who said Obama's team was exploiting the economic situation for political gain.

"They're taking advantage of a crisis in order to do things that had nothing to do with getting us into the crisis in the first place," McConnell said.

Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, promoted a potential plan to help move so-called toxic assets off bank ledgers.

"And I think, as I said, they are well along in this," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. "If they wait a week or two more, no one ought to get all in a twitter about that. It's very important to do it right."

The president's team largely rejected suggestions that officials were considering taxing employees' health benefits. As a candidate Obama had called such a proposal a "multitrillion-dollar tax hike."

"I'm not leaving the door open," said Austan Goolsbee, staff director of the Council of Economic Advisers, responding to a report in Sunday's New York Times. "The president has laid out a series of clear principles on the health plan that we will do whatever it takes to get affordable quality coverage to all Americans."

Romer said she wouldn't take the idea off the table, but she added that Obama hasn't supported it. Larry Summers, the president's chief economic adviser, said it wasn't part of Obama's principles but left open the possibility of such a move from Congress, where Democrats control both chambers.

Republicans were not resigned to accept Democrats' plans. Rep. Eric Cantor, the GOP's No. 2 leader in the House, promised an alternative budget, in part to counter Democratic attacks that his party provided only "no" but not other ideas.

Cantor said Obama's plan ignored the needs of small businesses and the middle class and would pass along an extra $800 in taxes to each American.

Members of both parties, however, joined in the criticism of troubled insurance giant American International Group, who paid out tens of millions in bonuses despite posting the largest corporate loss in history during the fourth quarter of last year.

Summers called the payout "outrageous," given AIG has received more than $170 billion in a public bailout and reported a loss of $61.7 billion. Frank said AIG's leaders who approved the bonuses shouldn't stay in power. And McConnell said the payments do little to boost public confidence.

"This is an outrage," McConnell said. "And for them to simply sit there and blame it on the previous administration or claim contract -- we all know that contracts are valid in this country, but they need to be looked at."

McConnell appeared on ABC's "This Week." Summers appeared on ABC and on CBS's "Face the Nation." Romer and Cantor appeared on NBC. Goolsbee and Frank appeared on "Fox News Sunday."

They say that to keep the markets " stable "

McCain said that to fool the population in voting for him ...

But the economy is NOT sound ... for either.:2 cents:

One said it when everyone was going broke, the other said it after a stimulous package
was put into place.

One of them looked like shit.

still have obama's cock stuck in ur ass?

:2 cents:

there will be those people that even as obama leads them to the gas chamber they will still say hes the right person for the job

Gas chamber arent you being alittle dramatic. If you think everything would of been fixed with mccain your kidding yourself.

the obamus malediction is upon us
the end is near
pray for your sins and you will be spared by the great mustafa :2 cents:

Change you can believe in... LOL

You are one of those people. :2 cents:

yet another *you can thank me later for enlightening you on the obvious* thread.

Still crying over spilled milk, huh? You really should make a thread apoligizing to all the Mccain flunkies for getting their hopes up. :1orglaugh

:1orglaugh

Do people really think the economy would have been fixed by now if McCain was elected?

no you are a sore loser. Mr obama can never win. lol

You guys seriously think that now that there is a stimulus package the "fundamentals" have suddenly went from bad to good? It's been six months... the stimulus package is only weeks old... you are seriously telling me that a stimulus package corrected a six-month nosedive within weeks? Give me a break.

The "fundamentals" haven't changed. I'm sure they were fine when McCain said it and I'm sure they are fine now.

A stimulus package does not change fundamentals.

fuck that.

I'll know the economy is sound when I have the kind of stats I used to have before all this shit happened

A stimulus package is a Band-Aid... nothing more. So either fundamentals were fine before the Band-Aid, or the fundamentals are still shit after the Band-Aid. You can't have it both ways.

And yes, I just quoted myself.

Thank you for proving my point.

You'd think Obama worshippers couldn't get any dumber, but they manage to surprise each time. Even as he's fucking them in the ass with no lube, they'll still chant their little "yes we can"

those who followed bush were just good americans but if you like obama you are a worshipper and you are blind to the world. God what sore losers. lol

how about the fact that he is saying the same thing McCain said... except when McCain said it, he couldn't stop talking about how totally wrong he was and how horrible everything was?

the only thing that changed between then and now is the fact that he's done nothing but talk down the economy and worsen the markets fall and he's finally figured out that you can't destroy confidence in an arena driven by confidence

I never chanted yes we can or any of that shit, I wanted Ron Paul. Unfortunatly there were only two choices so most saw Mccain/Palin and would vote for anything with a more liberal approach. I still think we are far better off than if Palin was running shit, as she would be by this time, because Mccain would have allready aged 5 years.

Obama didn't say the fundamentals were sound, somebody on his staff did. Either way, we know why Obama crucified McCain for saying it - for political gain during the campaign. His staff is saying the same thing now to build market confidence.

when he said doom and gloom he was fear mongering and you beat him up and then he is positive and then you beat him up. its like you hate him we get it. lol

:2 cents: :2 cents:

if obama doesnt make anything happen in 4 years then you can vote and talk shit, way to early in the game now. bush had 8 years obama just 3 months/

its not about if mccain would be better or not its about obama promising things during the election and now saying fuck you

What does that have to do with us bitching about this administration saying the exact same thing Obama chastised McCain for saying during the election? It was BS when McCain said it, it's BS now...I haven't expected Obama to have accomplished anything by now but ffs Obama admin, don't say that you have or that things are different when they're not.

no... HIS JOB is to be positive. HIS JOB is to lead. HIS JOB is to inspire hope. HIS JOB is to inspire people. HIS JOB is to create confidence. HIS JOB is to create confidence in the financial markets. It's what he is supposed to be doing all the time. Not doing it only because he realized how much damage he's done to the financial markets and because his poll numbers are starting to slip.


and you just said it yourself.. "What he said doom and gloom..."

what do you not get? he's the president of the USA. He's the Commander in Chief. He's a leader. As a leader, you don't go around telling everyone how horrible everything is and how its only going to get worse.... anymore than a football coach walks into the locker room at 1/2 time and tells the team they're gonna loose. One would think thats just common sense.

What you do and say to get elected is fine. Everything is fair game. The whole point of the campaign is to make the other guy look like an asshole and make the other party look like assholes. But fuck man... once you got it.. .why the fuck would you use your amazing gift for speaking to tell everyone they're totally fucked and its gonna get worse? I honestly fail to see how someone can defend that, regardless of the party or who they support.

because hes a master of reverse psychology but that shit dont work with wall street, see he thought if I go out there and say "its bad its gonna get worse but we will be ok at the end of the day" wall street would be "oh ok at least hes honest" and they would start buying, but no all buying halted and they started to sell more, a good 1500 points more worth of the dow, so then clinton him a good kick in the ass and said "what the heck you doing? go out there and be more positive" and now obama as well as everyone around him is running around yelling that everything is good and we will recover soon and not to worry etc.

So now wait until wall street sees that he was full of shit and there will be more job losses and more companies going under, thats when the bit trust and hope in obama will vanish and youll see a total market disaster.

If the fundamentals were not sound we would be in a new great depression with people lined up around the block for free food again.

I can dig this post.

Fundamentals of the economy are sound? Didn't McCain get crucified for that statement?

I think this is all some big joke..

it is exactly what it is... politics. the game of telling people what they want to hear and influencing public opinion to push your own agenda through which you were elected to do. the interesting part of all this and the idea that he is somehow going ot save the world is that there is now another performance metric that is the single greatest measure of the financial markets confidence in his ability to end / turn around the financial crisis.