Quit picking on Obama……
- Thread starter DaSleeper
- Start date
On the positive side for Obama, I am going to list a random campaign promise he has kept. Candidate Obama's education plan promised to eliminate "wasteful" subsidies to private student lenders and then use the money saved for increased grants to poor young people to attend college.
The health care reform bill had a section dedicated to higher education reform doing just that. It used to be that the US Department of Education sent subsidies to companies like Sallie Mae or Citigroup or Bank of America, in the hope that those subsidies would encourage those companies to lend to students. Now it's been stopped. DOE now lends money directly to students. Eliminating the subsidies is estimated to save the government $61 billion a year, a portion of which goes to raise Pell Grants.
Source: PolitiFact | Reduce subsidies to private student lenders and protect student borrowers - Obama promise No. 259:
Great accomplishment. Every college student that actually pays attention knows that the direct government loans are greatly superior to some loan from Sallie Mae, a company that consistantly gets horrible ratings from consumer advocacy groups. Plus, the increases in Pell Grants for poor people is awesome too.
The health care reform bill had a section dedicated to higher education reform doing just that. It used to be that the US Department of Education sent subsidies to companies like Sallie Mae or Citigroup or Bank of America, in the hope that those subsidies would encourage those companies to lend to students. Now it's been stopped. DOE now lends money directly to students. Eliminating the subsidies is estimated to save the government $61 billion a year, a portion of which goes to raise Pell Grants.
Source: PolitiFact | Reduce subsidies to private student lenders and protect student borrowers - Obama promise No. 259:
Great accomplishment. Every college student that actually pays attention knows that the direct government loans are greatly superior to some loan from Sallie Mae, a company that consistantly gets horrible ratings from consumer advocacy groups. Plus, the increases in Pell Grants for poor people is awesome too.
That's one of the criticisms that, if he found out about it, would make Obama go "Are these critics really f'ing serious?" Which would be the proper response.
Or... He could just self-identify as black/African-American, which is how the US Census Bureau accepts the race question (ie it's a relative, self-identity question).
"Or... He could just self-identify as black/African-American, which is how the US Census Bureau accepts the race question (ie it's a relative, self-identity question)."
Or... if he had any decency and honesty he would tick off the "BIRACIAL' column.
Too much to hope for with him. At least not the kind of HOPE he was so het up about during the campaign.
Or... if he had any decency and honesty he would tick off the "BIRACIAL' column.
Too much to hope for with him. At least not the kind of HOPE he was so het up about during the campaign.
Happy anniversary to this thread. There is a never ending supply of items to post, for instance, the Bamster probably didn't write his memoires.
[FONT=Verdana,Sans-serif]Obama election-year jobs agenda stalls in Congress
[FONT=Verdana,Sans-serif]
[FONT=Verdana,Sans-Serif]Email this Story[/FONT]
Apr 11, 6:15 AM (ET)
By ANDREW TAYLOR
p {margin:12px 0px 0px 0px;}
WASHINGTON (AP) - The election-year jobs agenda promised by President Barack Obama and Democrats has stalled seven months before voters determine control of Congress.
Democrats have no money to pay for the program. That's because both Republicans and the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee objected to taking money left over from the fund that bailed out banks, automakers and insurers and using it for the jobs bill.
Such a move, they insisted, would add tens of billions of dollars to the $12.8 trillion national debt.
An $80 billion-plus Senate plan promised an infusion of cash to build roads and schools, help local governments keep teachers on the payroll, and provide rebates for homeowners who make energy-saving investments. Two months after the plan was introduced, most of those main elements remain on the Senate's shelf.
Obama's proposed $250 bonus payment to Social Security recipients is dead for the year, having lost a Senate vote last month.
What's going ahead instead are more modest initiatives. That includes some help for small business or simple extensions of parts from last year's economic stimulus measure. None is expected to make an appreciable dent in an unemployment rate, stuck at 9.7 percent.
Even legislation to help the jobless has run into trouble. The idea of a jobs agenda arose late last year when the unemployment rate hit 10 percent and Democrats voiced concern that the majority party wasn't doing enough to spur job creation.
[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Sans-serif]
[FONT=Verdana,Sans-Serif]Email this Story[/FONT]Apr 11, 6:15 AM (ET)
By ANDREW TAYLOR
p {margin:12px 0px 0px 0px;}
WASHINGTON (AP) - The election-year jobs agenda promised by President Barack Obama and Democrats has stalled seven months before voters determine control of Congress.
Democrats have no money to pay for the program. That's because both Republicans and the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee objected to taking money left over from the fund that bailed out banks, automakers and insurers and using it for the jobs bill.
Such a move, they insisted, would add tens of billions of dollars to the $12.8 trillion national debt.
An $80 billion-plus Senate plan promised an infusion of cash to build roads and schools, help local governments keep teachers on the payroll, and provide rebates for homeowners who make energy-saving investments. Two months after the plan was introduced, most of those main elements remain on the Senate's shelf.
Obama's proposed $250 bonus payment to Social Security recipients is dead for the year, having lost a Senate vote last month.
What's going ahead instead are more modest initiatives. That includes some help for small business or simple extensions of parts from last year's economic stimulus measure. None is expected to make an appreciable dent in an unemployment rate, stuck at 9.7 percent.
Even legislation to help the jobless has run into trouble. The idea of a jobs agenda arose late last year when the unemployment rate hit 10 percent and Democrats voiced concern that the majority party wasn't doing enough to spur job creation.
[/FONT][/FONT]
That's a pretty bad AP article. I mean, from a journalist's point of view. "Democrats have no money to pay for the program." This gives the false impression that laws in Congress are hard to pay for when they're not. And specifically, Democrats right not can't have any way to pay for their program.
It's a misleading, nine-word statement in the first paragraph. Again, bad writing for a wire service.
It's a misleading, nine-word statement in the first paragraph. Again, bad writing for a wire service.
And then there's this:
The US federal deficit may shrink in FY 2010 by hundreds of billions of dollars.
washingtonpost.com
Completely unexpected good news. Obama must be doing something right.
The US federal deficit may shrink in FY 2010 by hundreds of billions of dollars.
washingtonpost.com
Completely unexpected good news. Obama must be doing something right.
Still 3 to 4 times what the evil Dubya had, but good for the man-child Bamster.
To be exact, these are fiscal years. So the bar for FY 2009, the largest bar, is from Oct. 2008-Sept. 2009. That is over a yearly quarter of the Bush administration.
If the 4Q of 2008 were a normal quarter, I would let this slide without pointing it out, but that was the quarter immediately following the approval of the TARP funds (aka the bank bailout).
If the 4Q of 2008 were a normal quarter, I would let this slide without pointing it out, but that was the quarter immediately following the approval of the TARP funds (aka the bank bailout).
