Obama Administration Has Less Private Sector Experience than Any Other.

[Big Fitz]

Faboo! High praise indeed from Supergirl.

Thanks Mountain Man as well. I hope to keep my halfwit around for a while.

Justin, you should hear the Chris Baker Show on KTLK fm. They have a bumper whenever someone starts even sounding like that. To the Dr. Pepper jingle:

"I'm a racist, you're a racist, he's a racist, she's a racist. If you don't like Obama, so are you!"

 

[Justin Case]

Just remember, if you so much as oppose Obama for any reason, you're a racist.

Oh yes....the wingnut myth

One serving of drooling lefty wing-nut coming right up!

“We think all of it is!” exclaimed Gwen Dawkins, a Democratic activist from Michigan and retired state employee when asked to what degree the fervent opposition to Obama was driven by his skin color.

In her own words, all of the opposition to Obama is driven merely by his skin color, making opposition to Obama racist.

You should give up while you're still behind, right-oh shit I'm a lefty wing-nut - winger.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Everyone knows the people at the top (State, Treasury, AG, Defense), so let's take a look at some of the lower level cabinet posts.

Housing and Urban Development - Shaun Donovan - BA, MPA, MS in architecture, all from Harvard; interum Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing and Federal Housing Administration commissioner during the transition in 2000; head of New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Energy- Steven Chu - BS from University of Rochester and PhD in physics from University of California; won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997; professorship at Stanford; professor at Cal and head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Education - Arne Duncan - BA in sociology (magna cum laude) from Harvard; director of the Ariel Education Initiative; head of Chicago Public Schools

Veterans Affairs - Eric Shinseki - BS from West Point, MA in English from Duke; retired four-star general

No long list of private sector jobs on any of those four resumes, but you would argue they're unqualified for the positions they hold?

Harvard educations? Nobel Prizes? Army Chief of Staff?

Whats impressive about that?

I do miss all the graduates from Falwells Liberty University...who needs Harvard when you got Liberty?

you can have 14 Phd's RW and still be a big ZERO....

 

[rightwinger]

Everyone knows the people at the top (State, Treasury, AG, Defense), so let's take a look at some of the lower level cabinet posts.

Housing and Urban Development - Shaun Donovan - BA, MPA, MS in architecture, all from Harvard; interum Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing and Federal Housing Administration commissioner during the transition in 2000; head of New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Energy- Steven Chu - BS from University of Rochester and PhD in physics from University of California; won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997; professorship at Stanford; professor at Cal and head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Education - Arne Duncan - BA in sociology (magna cum laude) from Harvard; director of the Ariel Education Initiative; head of Chicago Public Schools

Veterans Affairs - Eric Shinseki - BS from West Point, MA in English from Duke; retired four-star general

No long list of private sector jobs on any of those four resumes, but you would argue they're unqualified for the positions they hold?

Harvard educations? Nobel Prizes? Army Chief of Staff?

Whats impressive about that?

I do miss all the graduates from Falwells Liberty University...who needs Harvard when you got Liberty?

you can have 14 Phd's RW and still be a big ZERO....

Or you can have policy driven by Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Don Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzalez and get a big ZERO

 

[NYcarbineer]

Obama and his cabinet have never created wealth. They have only spent other people's wealth. Therfore they have no idea how wealth is created. It is a mindset. In their mind wealth is always out there among "the rich." It isn't earned. It isn't worked for. It just falls from the sky. And therfore it doesn't really belong to the people who earned it but to "society", i.e. the government.
We see this in their policies and pronouncements every day. Obama's "jobs summit" is the latest evidence. Everyone knows how you create jobs, except his administration apparently.

If you only knew how ridiculous you sound.

 

[The Rabbi]

Obama and his cabinet have never created wealth. They have only spent other people's wealth. Therfore they have no idea how wealth is created. It is a mindset. In their mind wealth is always out there among "the rich." It isn't earned. It isn't worked for. It just falls from the sky. And therfore it doesn't really belong to the people who earned it but to "society", i.e. the government.
We see this in their policies and pronouncements every day. Obama's "jobs summit" is the latest evidence. Everyone knows how you create jobs, except his administration apparently.

If you only knew how ridiculous you sound.

Then it ought to be easy for a genius like yourself to refute it. Go ahead. Make my day.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Harvard educations? Nobel Prizes? Army Chief of Staff?

Whats impressive about that?

I do miss all the graduates from Falwells Liberty University...who needs Harvard when you got Liberty?

you can have 14 Phd's RW and still be a big ZERO....

Or you can have policy driven by Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Don Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzalez and get a big ZERO

so either way we are still at or around ....zero....especially when i see Pelosi and Reids mugs...telling us how it is going to be...

 

[oreo]

Actually, the title should say "Obama Administration Has Less Private Sector Experience than Any Other."

Does Obama Administration Have Less Business Experience?

It couldn't be more obvious either--

 

[rdean]

Obama and his cabinet have never created wealth. They have only spent other people's wealth. Therfore they have no idea how wealth is created. It is a mindset. In their mind wealth is always out there among "the rich." It isn't earned. It isn't worked for. It just falls from the sky. And therfore it doesn't really belong to the people who earned it but to "society", i.e. the government.
We see this in their policies and pronouncements every day. Obama's "jobs summit" is the latest evidence. Everyone knows how you create jobs, except his administration apparently.

Bush and the Republicans NEVER created wealth. They simply "transferred" it from the middle class to the wealthiest 3% of the nation through tax cuts for the rich and no bid contracts. This is VERY RECENT HISTORY. How come Republicans don't know that?

 

[tigerbob]

Because Wall st. caused the financial meltdown, and Wall st. is now lobbying frantically to stop Congress from imposing any regulations/controls to try to prevent the next meltdown.

Yeah, I realize that's the point you were aiming at. But isn't one extreme (little or no public sector input) and bad as another (little or no public sector experience)?

No, it's not. Careers in government are going to bring in people who end up looking at all sides of the issue and balance the concerns. Bring in people from the private sector is going to result in the agencies issuing and overturning regulations, whichever is relevant toward the goal, to help out their corporate buddies.

So Obama has got the balance right, and every previous POTUS got it wrong.

I agree that private sector experience almost always brings both good and bad baggage with it, but your faith in the public sector is naive. It's almost as though you view working in the public sector as the only genuine measure of altruism - they work in the public sector so they must have the public's interests at heart and will reach a balanced position.

 

[California Girl]

Obama and his cabinet have never created wealth. They have only spent other people's wealth. Therfore they have no idea how wealth is created. It is a mindset. In their mind wealth is always out there among "the rich." It isn't earned. It isn't worked for. It just falls from the sky. And therfore it doesn't really belong to the people who earned it but to "society", i.e. the government.
We see this in their policies and pronouncements every day. Obama's "jobs summit" is the latest evidence. Everyone knows how you create jobs, except his administration apparently.

Bush and the Republicans NEVER created wealth. They simply "transferred" it from the middle class to the wealthiest 3% of the nation through tax cuts for the rich and no bid contracts. This is VERY RECENT HISTORY. How come Republicans don't know that?

Maybe it's because they're smart enough to know the difference between fact and fiction. Just sayin'.

 

[The Rabbi]

Obama and his cabinet have never created wealth. They have only spent other people's wealth. Therfore they have no idea how wealth is created. It is a mindset. In their mind wealth is always out there among "the rich." It isn't earned. It isn't worked for. It just falls from the sky. And therfore it doesn't really belong to the people who earned it but to "society", i.e. the government.
We see this in their policies and pronouncements every day. Obama's "jobs summit" is the latest evidence. Everyone knows how you create jobs, except his administration apparently.

Bush and the Republicans NEVER created wealth. They simply "transferred" it from the middle class to the wealthiest 3% of the nation through tax cuts for the rich and no bid contracts. This is VERY RECENT HISTORY. How come Republicans don't know that?

BOOSHHHH! IT"S BOOOSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A year into the administration this talking point is getting a little shopworn. I think you need a new gig here.

 

[saveliberty]

Back to the chart...

In look at the experience of Obama's current cabinet you see four had private practice lawyer backgrounds (Napolitano, Salazar, Holder, Clinton), Donovan was a mortgage banker, Duncan played pro basketball for four years in Australia, Salazar was also a rancher and owner of a Dairy Queen and radio station.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/07/politics/main4583057.shtml

I am going to say the 8% private sector experience represents the total percentage of the cabinet's work life outside of the public sector. There is little diversity on private sector work experience either, which is a further complication in my opinion. This is an advisory board to the President, they need a varied background and perspectives which is group doesn't have. They also are adminstrators which I am sure they are over qualified for. I say these things not as a person with a political view, which you all know I do have, but as someone from a manger's point of view. My board would be very different from this one.

 

[Foxfyre]

Back to the chart...

In look at the experience of Obama's current cabinet you see four had private practice lawyer backgrounds (Napolitano, Salazar, Holder, Clinton), Donovan was a mortgage banker, Duncan played pro basketball for four years in Australia, Salazar was also a rancher and owner of a Dairy Queen and radio station.

Barack Obama's Cabinet - CBS News

I am going to say the 8% private sector experience represents the total percentage of the cabinet's work life outside of the public sector. There is little diversity on private sector work experience either, which is a further complication in my opinion. This is an advisory board to the President, they need a varied background and perspectives which is group doesn't have. They also are adminstrators which I am sure they are over qualified for. I say these things not as a person with a political view, which you all know I do have, but as someone from a manger's point of view. My board would be very different from this one.

I bet you wouldn't put a lot of folks with highly questionable and dubious ideology and background activity on your board, and I doubt you would pick many folks who would make anti-American or otherwise inflammatory statements that would force you to throw them under the bus.

 

[NYcarbineer]

I probably shouldn't ask this because it implicitly lends credibility to the premise here (where none is due) but by any chance has anyone seen the methodology for this 'study'?

 

[politicalpurest]

Unfortunately people working in the private sector are not necessarily experts at dealing with the economy--for example, take a look at the most recent collapse of the economy. If you are so well-versed in the economy, you would also know that all agents in the economy are utility maximizing, or in layman's terms for those who don't know much about the economy, profit maximizing. That means that "business people" are more likely to engage in short-sighted tactics that are not beneficial to society but very beneficial to themselves. Obama takes a more objective and empirical approach to his administration, which is excellent after eight years of knee-jerk reactions from the Bush Administration. Please do not say ignorant things in the future without understanding the implications of your position.

 

[politicalpurest]

Obama and his cabinet have never created wealth. They have only spent other people's wealth. Therfore they have no idea how wealth is created. It is a mindset. In their mind wealth is always out there among "the rich." It isn't earned. It isn't worked for. It just falls from the sky. And therfore it doesn't really belong to the people who earned it but to "society", i.e. the government.
We see this in their policies and pronouncements every day. Obama's "jobs summit" is the latest evidence. Everyone knows how you create jobs, except his administration apparently.

If you only knew how ridiculous you sound.

Then it ought to be easy for a genius like yourself to refute it. Go ahead. Make my day.

Why don't you take an economics class? What exactly are your credentials when speaking on this topic? You took Intro to Macroeconomics at the county college up the street from your Mom's house? Do you even know the mechanism by which wealth travels through society? Do you think that when your wealth is a product of public investment in your human capital (i.e. if you go to public institutions and then capitalize on your (and our) investment) that you should not have to contribute back to future generations? The fact of the matter is if Obama engages in a lot of domestic investment, especially in education and health care (let's hope you weren't pro-war and don't have an issue with spending billions in Iraq, Afghanistian, etc. and not here), the US can actually increase its competitiveness and build its comparative advantage in the global economy and continue to be a world economic power. "Conservatives," or people who take for granted all things that have been given to them by the public sector, are completely ignorant of this. Concentrating wealth at the very top and being greedy over the "things you've worked for all by yourself" is a dangerous practice. The point is, why not understand economic forces and capitalize on this understanding to make the entire country richer, including BOTH those at the top and bottom via the "free market," which by the way, includes both private and public spending (see definition of Gross Domestic Product). Please learn some economics...

 

[Foxfyre]

I probably shouldn't ask this because it implicitly lends credibility to the premise here (where none is due) but by any chance has anyone seen the methodology for this 'study'?

I have looked and so far haven't been able to find one, but considering the source, it is probably safe to assume that the graph is more likely accurate than not. What we don't know that would be helpful is what criteria was used to define 'private sector experience.' Many Obama supporters, for instance, counted his brief tenure as a law instructor and his equally brief time as a community organizer as private sector experience. As both were government funded, I don't define such experience as 'private sector', but that's just me.

 

[Foxfyre]

Unfortunately people working in the private sector are not necessarily experts at dealing with the economy--for example, take a look at the most recent collapse of the economy. If you are so well-versed in the economy, you would also know that all agents in the economy are utility maximizing, or in layman's terms for those who don't know much about the economy, profit maximizing. That means that "business people" are more likely to engage in short-sighted tactics that are not beneficial to society but very beneficial to themselves. Obama takes a more objective and empirical approach to his administration, which is excellent after eight years of knee-jerk reactions from the Bush Administration. Please do not say ignorant things in the future without understanding the implications of your position.

You are correct that all persons in the private sector are not skilled at either economics or managing a business, and you are also correct that business sometimes hampers its positive role in society by focusing on short term gratification for the stockholders rather than focusing on sustainable growth and prosperity.

But one thing is for sure. Successful business people usually know what makes them successful including educated risk taking, investment, the components of taxes, employment, benefits, markets, and regulation that encourage or hamper growth and profits. And, if you put such persons into government, they know what policy, regulation, and emphasis will encourage and sustain a robust economy to the advantage of the largest number of people. Whether they exercise that knowledge is another quantity.

It is for certain, based on the policy and emphasis of the current administration, that they do not know what contributes to a robust and sustainable growing economy, or they don't want a robust and sustainable growing economy.

 

[Big Fitz]

Obama and his cabinet have never created wealth. They have only spent other people's wealth. Therfore they have no idea how wealth is created. It is a mindset. In their mind wealth is always out there among "the rich." It isn't earned. It isn't worked for. It just falls from the sky. And therfore it doesn't really belong to the people who earned it but to "society", i.e. the government.
We see this in their policies and pronouncements every day. Obama's "jobs summit" is the latest evidence. Everyone knows how you create jobs, except his administration apparently.

Bush and the Republicans NEVER created wealth. They simply "transferred" it from the middle class to the wealthiest 3% of the nation through tax cuts for the rich and no bid contracts. This is VERY RECENT HISTORY. How come Republicans don't know that?

because... it's not true?

Just a thought.

BTW, anyone else notice something significant about this wonderful graphic?

It doesn't include czars. How much added or decreased business experience do you get if you add in those to all the presidents who had czars?