Great Speech.

[Sallow]

So what is spending 447 billion of money we don't have going to accomplish that spending 873 billion of money we don't have didn't already?

This meme is becoming tiresome.

Somehow we have money to prosecute a war in Afghanistan, maintain some 700 bases globally, provide a military for Israel, Jordan, Egypt and many other countries while spending more then the rest of the world combine to keep ourselves armed to the teeth against some vague threat..but we can not repair our infrastructure or put people to work.

yeah..we got it.

Well said. What is painfully obvious is the Republcan leadership in Congress is focused on the next general election and not on the plight of the American citizens. Congress has passed nothing to mitigate the lifes our citizens it has a duty to protect; such a breach hidden under the quise of fiscal responsibility is absurd if not criminal.

And that's the pickle barrel, folks.

 

[Cuyo]

I watched the speech in its entirety. Let me preface this by saying that from the beginning I wanted President Obama (just for you Sallow) to succeed. If he had succeeded, we would all succeed. A rising tide lifts ALL boats, not just some. He did not succeed because he is more concerned with an ideology than with common sense business approaches. I agree that the tax incentives for small businesses will HELP, but it will not fix the situation. If you hire someone at minimum wage, it costs you $30,000 a year. How is a $4,000 tax break going to compensate when we haven't even addressed the penalties coming for Obamacare?

Small businesses are being drowned in red tape. I truly agree that it would not be helpful to completely do away with some regulations, such as levels of mercury that President Obama highlighted, but it would be helpful to eradicate those regulations that are strangling small businesses. I got out because I spent more money complying with federal regulations than in just doing my business. I saw nothing last night that makes me believe that it will change. At coffee this morning, none of my acquaintences who own businesses saw anything that makes them believe otherwise either. Those that can hire will not. Still the "wait and see" attitude.

I have to ask my friends on the left, which government agency is it that creates those jobs we need? The answer my friends is NONE. Government does NOT create jobs and I really get the impression that the left does not understand that simple fact. You have to REMOVE roadblocks. You have to REMOVE the belief, whether deserved or not, that President Obama and his administration wants to punish small business owners. I am here to tell you that in "fly over" country the belief still exists this morning that the only solution will be a change in leadership. He (President Obama) has spent his political capital on previous ideas that will and have hurt small businesses and he is not willing to change or even discuss those issues.

I am glad that those of you on the left were so impressed. But naturally, YOU don't run a small business. We do and we do not see a change in attitude nor a change in direction. Enact the jobs bill and I can guarantee that nothing will change. Sad, but true...

I do, and growing to boot. I can honestly say that regulation is not the problem, and I'm in one of the most heavily regulated industries you can fathom. The problem is a shitty economy in general; Not only are sales slow, but you have to work extra hard to get them, and everybody wants a deal. This stems from the consumer level. The retail store slashes prices to encourage broke-ass people to buy their products, then pass along the price cut to the wholesaler who passes it on the the manufacturer/distributor (ME.)

A tax incentive would more than likely spark me to hire another person here, but really only because I'm on the fence about doing it anyway. (FYI a minimum wage employee working 40 hours a week would make only about half of what you say; Not that you can get anyone decent to work for minimum wage anyway).

The bigger picture here is that when people get back to work, everyone benefits - Consumers have more money to spend, businesses have more demand, and the government gets more revenues, even at the same tax rate. I think that multiplier is the ultimate hope for a proposal such as this one.

 

[Dr.House]

Was there anything in the speech about investing in solar technology?


I hope not....

 

[edjax1952]

So what is spending 447 billion of money we don't have going to accomplish that spending 873 billion of money we don't have didn't already?

This meme is becoming tiresome.

Somehow we have money to prosecute a war in Afghanistan, maintain some 700 bases globally, provide a military for Israel, Jordan, Egypt and many other countries while spending more then the rest of the world combine to keep ourselves armed to the teeth against some vague threat..but we can not repair our infrastructure or put people to work.

yeah..we got it.

Well said. What is painfully obvious is the Republcan leadership in Congress is focused on the next general election and not on the plight of the American citizens. Congress has passed nothing to mitigate the lifes our citizens it has a duty to protect; such a breach hidden under the quise of fiscal responsibility is absurd if not criminal.

And when we had a Democratic House, Senate and President where did we get? Into a tailspin of debt/spending through stimulus and social programs without sufficient consideration of income to cover it.

 

[Remodeling Maidiac]

The President was real good at speachifying. Too bad he didn't recommend anything that he hadn't already done or that had already failed.

But he said it with enthusiasm and that alone will fool a lot of people out there.

There's nothing to "fool".

He set up the distinction for the 2012 election.

On one side you have a party committed to shoveling massive amounts tax money into the pockets of the wealthy while demanding austerity from everyone else.

On the other side you have a party which shovels some tax money into the pockets of the wealthy but demands a little parity with everyone else.

It ain't pretty..but there it is.

Wow, if you believe that is what divides our 2 parties your either really stupid or really partisan. Either way last night didn't define anything as you seem to think it did. The American people believe he is a nice guy. But a nice guy that doesn't have a ******* clue what he's doing. Look at the polls and face the failure, he's done.

 

[Sallow]

The President was real good at speachifying. Too bad he didn't recommend anything that he hadn't already done or that had already failed.

But he said it with enthusiasm and that alone will fool a lot of people out there.

There's nothing to "fool".

He set up the distinction for the 2012 election.

On one side you have a party committed to shoveling massive amounts tax money into the pockets of the wealthy while demanding austerity from everyone else.

On the other side you have a party which shovels some tax money into the pockets of the wealthy but demands a little parity with everyone else.

It ain't pretty..but there it is.

Wow, if you believe that is what divides our 2 parties your either really stupid or really partisan. Either way last night didn't define anything as you seem to think it did. The American people believe he is a nice guy. But a nice guy that doesn't have a ******* clue what he's doing. Look at the polls and face the failure, he's done.

At the core..yeah..that's what distinquishes the parties.

Everything else is bread and circuses.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

I thought it would be okay but this was better. President Obama really hit the mark with this one.

Surprisingly enough Canter was on a few shows and it looks like hes on board with alot of the proposals.

I liked a couple of his ideas but most of the speech was asking the congress to retry what we did in 09 that failed, it had the same "pass this or you hate teachers, kids, and puppies" rhetoric, and it centers around tax increases which the president knows the republican's wont go for.


All in all it came across to me as a political speech and not a solutions speech. I was pretty disappointed that he continued the Buffet tax misrepresentation and that immelt was even there! I know i know immelt is his jobs guy but that dude keeps shipping manufacturing jobs overseas, thats not what america needs.

I wish he made something I could look specifically, sorta like the romney plan, so I can actually talk about his jobs bill with knowledge of it....but no one has the bill!


I dunno, maybe my expectations that this would be drastically different than his past speeches and proposals were too high but overall I was disappointed.

It's coming next week.

And I seriously don't get why somebody who is being a politician who actually is a politician is so denigrated.

That's sorta like getting mad at a doctor for prescribing pills.

I hope it comes at the beginning of the week as I really want to look it over and make my decision on what i support and don't support in the actual execution of the bill.

I'm not sure how I was denigrating him with my response? I just gave an honest, opinion based, assesment of the speech.

What was denigrating about what I said? Yeah my review wasn't positive but I wasn't calling obama names or anything.

 

[OldUSAFSniper]

So what is spending 447 billion of money we don't have going to accomplish that spending 873 billion of money we don't have didn't already?

This meme is becoming tiresome.

Somehow we have money to prosecute a war in Afghanistan, maintain some 700 bases globally, provide a military for Israel, Jordan, Egypt and many other countries while spending more then the rest of the world combine to keep ourselves armed to the teeth against some vague threat..but we can not repair our infrastructure or put people to work.

yeah..we got it.

Well said. What is painfully obvious is the Republcan leadership in Congress is focused on the next general election and not on the plight of the American citizens. Congress has passed nothing to mitigate the lifes our citizens it has a duty to protect; such a breach hidden under the quise of fiscal responsibility is absurd if not criminal.

Congress has passed nothing to mitigate the lifes our citizens it has a duty to protect; such a breach hidden under the quise of fiscal responsibility is absurd if not criminal

You are forgiven for ordering and eating a pizza during civics class 101 when they discussed Congresses duty and responsibilities. If Congress really wants to do something to help it's citizens, then they would GO ON VACATION for about six months!

You see, if you had been paying attention, and I understand that civics can be a very boring and dry subject, you would know that under a capatalistic system (which the United States is), jobs are produced or lost by the private sector. Congress can't really do anything EXCEPT stick it's finger into a festering sore and make it worse. Which, by enacting Obamacare, they certainly have. And in doing so, they have created a climate of uncertainty where upon businesses, especially small businesses, have absolutely NO CLUE as to what is coming around the corner in 6 months or 6 years. Therefore, they will NOT hire and they will NOT expand.

As for the spending on the war, I submit SALLOW's earlier suggestion on how Afghanistan should have been handled. As for the bases, I think that if you understood that the military is also used to respond to natural disasters and to protect American citizens abroad, then you would understand that those bases are sorely needed. Cutting the military IS NOT the answer. Our capabilities are already weakened, something we shall pay dearly for in the future with lives I am sure.

 

[Sallow]

I do, and growing to boot. I can honestly say that regulation is not the problem, and I'm in one of the most heavily regulated industries you can fathom. The problem is a shitty economy in general; Not only are sales slow, but you have to work extra hard to get them, and everybody wants a deal. This stems from the consumer level. The retail store slashes prices to encourage broke-ass people to buy their products, then pass along the price cut to the wholesaler who passes it on the the manufacturer/distributor (ME.)

A tax incentive would more than likely spark me to hire another person here, but really only because I'm on the fence about doing it anyway. (FYI a minimum wage employee working 40 hours a week would make only about half of what you say; Not that you can get anyone decent to work for minimum wage anyway).

The bigger picture here is that when people get back to work, everyone benefits - Consumers have more money to spend, businesses have more demand, and the government gets more revenues, even at the same tax rate. I think that multiplier is the ultimate hope for a proposal such as this one.

I had a bar in Atlanta. I could have done without the "by the drink tax", the "no specials rule", the "you have to serve food with alcohol" rule, the cops shaking me down for jobs at big events and alot of other things.

But then again..those were local regulations.

 

[OldUSAFSniper]

I watched the speech in its entirety. Let me preface this by saying that from the beginning I wanted President Obama (just for you Sallow) to succeed. If he had succeeded, we would all succeed. A rising tide lifts ALL boats, not just some. He did not succeed because he is more concerned with an ideology than with common sense business approaches. I agree that the tax incentives for small businesses will HELP, but it will not fix the situation. If you hire someone at minimum wage, it costs you $30,000 a year. How is a $4,000 tax break going to compensate when we haven't even addressed the penalties coming for Obamacare?

Small businesses are being drowned in red tape. I truly agree that it would not be helpful to completely do away with some regulations, such as levels of mercury that President Obama highlighted, but it would be helpful to eradicate those regulations that are strangling small businesses. I got out because I spent more money complying with federal regulations than in just doing my business. I saw nothing last night that makes me believe that it will change. At coffee this morning, none of my acquaintences who own businesses saw anything that makes them believe otherwise either. Those that can hire will not. Still the "wait and see" attitude.

I have to ask my friends on the left, which government agency is it that creates those jobs we need? The answer my friends is NONE. Government does NOT create jobs and I really get the impression that the left does not understand that simple fact. You have to REMOVE roadblocks. You have to REMOVE the belief, whether deserved or not, that President Obama and his administration wants to punish small business owners. I am here to tell you that in "fly over" country the belief still exists this morning that the only solution will be a change in leadership. He (President Obama) has spent his political capital on previous ideas that will and have hurt small businesses and he is not willing to change or even discuss those issues.

I am glad that those of you on the left were so impressed. But naturally, YOU don't run a small business. We do and we do not see a change in attitude nor a change in direction. Enact the jobs bill and I can guarantee that nothing will change. Sad, but true...

I do, and growing to boot. I can honestly say that regulation is not the problem, and I'm in one of the most heavily regulated industries you can fathom. The problem is a shitty economy in general; Not only are sales slow, but you have to work extra hard to get them, and everybody wants a deal. This stems from the consumer level. The retail store slashes prices to encourage broke-ass people to buy their products, then pass along the price cut to the wholesaler who passes it on the the manufacturer/distributor (ME.)

A tax incentive would more than likely spark me to hire another person here, but really only because I'm on the fence about doing it anyway. (FYI a minimum wage employee working 40 hours a week would make only about half of what you say; Not that you can get anyone decent to work for minimum wage anyway).

The bigger picture here is that when people get back to work, everyone benefits - Consumers have more money to spend, businesses have more demand, and the government gets more revenues, even at the same tax rate. I think that multiplier is the ultimate hope for a proposal such as this one.

A minimum wage employee only MAKES half of what I said, but when you take into account the taxes you pay for them working for you, insurance, facilities, HR costs, etc., if you figure it out completely, it comes to around $30,000 a year. YOU pay for far more than just salary my friend. And do you know how Obamacare will affect that bottom line? No, I don't either. I know that my taxes and insurance is going to go up, but no one can tell me how much or anything else about it.

If you feel that this program proposed by the President is going to benefit you, then I think you should hire some more employees. My business involved IT. A lot of my friends are in manufacturing and service industries such as cleaning, etc. They are not convinced. I can't say as I blame them. I actually hope you are right. But I doubt it.

 

[Sallow]

I liked a couple of his ideas but most of the speech was asking the congress to retry what we did in 09 that failed, it had the same "pass this or you hate teachers, kids, and puppies" rhetoric, and it centers around tax increases which the president knows the republican's wont go for.


All in all it came across to me as a political speech and not a solutions speech. I was pretty disappointed that he continued the Buffet tax misrepresentation and that immelt was even there! I know i know immelt is his jobs guy but that dude keeps shipping manufacturing jobs overseas, thats not what america needs.

I wish he made something I could look specifically, sorta like the romney plan, so I can actually talk about his jobs bill with knowledge of it....but no one has the bill!


I dunno, maybe my expectations that this would be drastically different than his past speeches and proposals were too high but overall I was disappointed.

It's coming next week.

And I seriously don't get why somebody who is being a politician who actually is a politician is so denigrated.

That's sorta like getting mad at a doctor for prescribing pills.

I hope it comes at the beginning of the week as I really want to look it over and make my decision on what i support and don't support in the actual execution of the bill.

I'm not sure how I was denigrating him with my response? I just gave an honest, opinion based, assesment of the speech.
What was denigrating about what I said? Yeah my review wasn't positive but I wasn't calling obama names or anything.

You made the distinction between "Political" and "Solutions", casting Political as a negative. I think it was both. A Political speech and a Solutions speech.

Personally, I like when a person likes their job. They do it better. Because they are doing something they enjoy. I don't like it when a politician casts government as evil or politicians as "self serving". Those people really should find another line of work.

 

[Bern80]

I thought the speech was good, but it doesn't stand a ground.

In reality he is demanding from all of us, including Congress, to band over and agree with him long before his plan is even written. Does Congress has to pas this bill in order to find out what's in it too?

And that's not what happened.

What happened was that President Obama did something that was sort of expected, but he did it well. What he did was, yet again, challenge to the Republican party to become the responsible party it once was. He challenged them to start governing in a manner that is not lunacy.

Look. President Obama won the Presidential election, and by a count greater then his predecessor. And what happened was the opposing party simply didn't accept that. They wanted to nullify the election. And by in large, they've been pretty successful. And a large part of that is because of bigotry and racism. It's not the sort of racism of 50 years ago..but it is very prevalent. Michele Bachmann is a prime example. She not a fire breathing, "let's lynch them", type. Quite the contrary. She accepts the fact that we are a multi-cultural society..just she doesn't view other cultures as "equal". She's actually said this. And this is the "soft" bigotry and racism that now is really a part of the culture of both American Conservatism and the Republican party. They have no trouble with people of other cultures and racism so long as they know their "place". And it's an abomination that a fellow who's skin is not white sits in the White House.

I'm sure President Obama is starting to get this. But he hasn't given up on the notion of working together. However, simply asking to work together is not going to work. So he challenged them. And very publicly. It was a politically masterful thing to do. But in either case, Republicans working with him or not, he will be perceived as the one who set the agenda and tried.

Personally I loved the speech. I loved that a died in the wool liberal got beat over the head with reaity and was forced to espouse some rather conservative views and policeis in order to get the economy rolling.

 

[Caroljo]

Jackson, could you possible tell me the unemployment rate of Obama would have not "wasted" money? I would be very interested on knowing if you would support the unemployment that came with no stimulus.


to be clear, the stimulus sucks, we all hate it! however, im quite thankful for the job saved this far. thats just me.

OK....the big problem with this statement is....Unemployment was about 8%?? at the time he shoved his stimulus through, saying if it didn't pass then unemployment would rise about 8%. Well, that was a big FAIL! The shovel ready jobs were a big FAIL. Companies continued to lay-off or move out of the country...Do we really need more of this?

 

[Sallow]

I thought the speech was good, but it doesn't stand a ground.

In reality he is demanding from all of us, including Congress, to band over and agree with him long before his plan is even written. Does Congress has to pas this bill in order to find out what's in it too?

And that's not what happened.

What happened was that President Obama did something that was sort of expected, but he did it well. What he did was, yet again, challenge to the Republican party to become the responsible party it once was. He challenged them to start governing in a manner that is not lunacy.

Look. President Obama won the Presidential election, and by a count greater then his predecessor. And what happened was the opposing party simply didn't accept that. They wanted to nullify the election. And by in large, they've been pretty successful. And a large part of that is because of bigotry and racism. It's not the sort of racism of 50 years ago..but it is very prevalent. Michele Bachmann is a prime example. She not a fire breathing, "let's lynch them", type. Quite the contrary. She accepts the fact that we are a multi-cultural society..just she doesn't view other cultures as "equal". She's actually said this. And this is the "soft" bigotry and racism that now is really a part of the culture of both American Conservatism and the Republican party. They have no trouble with people of other cultures and racism so long as they know their "place". And it's an abomination that a fellow who's skin is not white sits in the White House.

I'm sure President Obama is starting to get this. But he hasn't given up on the notion of working together. However, simply asking to work together is not going to work. So he challenged them. And very publicly. It was a politically masterful thing to do. But in either case, Republicans working with him or not, he will be perceived as the one who set the agenda and tried.

Personally I loved the speech. I loved that a died in the wool liberal got beat over the head with reaity and was forced to espouse some rather conservative views and policeis in order to get the economy rolling.

Except..that's what he's been doing all along. Albeit, it was more old guard conservative solutions that would make people like Bob Dole and Jack Kemp (Guys I liked by the way), cheer.

 

[Claudette]

Yeah..vague threat.

The proper response to 9/11 would have been to go into Afghanistan, kill the terrorists, clean out the camps, build a couple of irrigation ditches, give the Taliban some smokes and the kiddies chocolate and leave them with a stern warning that we would be back if they hosted Al Qaeda again. Only next time no chocolate, smokes, or irrigation ditiches.

The proper response to terrorism is to the shoot the number 1 in the face in front of number 2 and then ask number 2 what his beef was again..

SALLOW!!!! I laughed so hard at this, I had trouble getting back up on my chair to type!!! I knew there was a reason why I liked you, even though you're a card carrying leftie.

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU

LMAO Good one S.

 

[Liberty]

...my asshole makes better speeches during my morning shit.

 

[Sallow]

SALLOW!!!! I laughed so hard at this, I had trouble getting back up on my chair to type!!! I knew there was a reason why I liked you, even though you're a card carrying leftie.

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU

LMAO Good one S.

Thanks..I have my moments.

 

[nolebrakai]

Obama is kicking ass in Richmond! Im feeling it!

 

[grunt11b]

I thought it would be okay but this was better. President Obama really hit the mark with this one.

Surprisingly enough Canter was on a few shows and it looks like hes on board with alot of the proposals.

It was a sales pitch for another stimulus bill and more unneeded spending, nothing more.

 

[Bern80]

And that's not what happened.

What happened was that President Obama did something that was sort of expected, but he did it well. What he did was, yet again, challenge to the Republican party to become the responsible party it once was. He challenged them to start governing in a manner that is not lunacy.

Look. President Obama won the Presidential election, and by a count greater then his predecessor. And what happened was the opposing party simply didn't accept that. They wanted to nullify the election. And by in large, they've been pretty successful. And a large part of that is because of bigotry and racism. It's not the sort of racism of 50 years ago..but it is very prevalent. Michele Bachmann is a prime example. She not a fire breathing, "let's lynch them", type. Quite the contrary. She accepts the fact that we are a multi-cultural society..just she doesn't view other cultures as "equal". She's actually said this. And this is the "soft" bigotry and racism that now is really a part of the culture of both American Conservatism and the Republican party. They have no trouble with people of other cultures and racism so long as they know their "place". And it's an abomination that a fellow who's skin is not white sits in the White House.

I'm sure President Obama is starting to get this. But he hasn't given up on the notion of working together. However, simply asking to work together is not going to work. So he challenged them. And very publicly. It was a politically masterful thing to do. But in either case, Republicans working with him or not, he will be perceived as the one who set the agenda and tried.

Personally I loved the speech. I loved that a died in the wool liberal got beat over the head with reaity and was forced to espouse some rather conservative views and policeis in order to get the economy rolling.

Except..that's what he's been doing all along. Albeit, it was more old guard conservative solutions that would make people like Bob Dole and Jack Kemp (Guys I liked by the way), cheer.

Doesn't bode well for the Republican Pres. candidates. Not like they can afford to agree with him in an election year.