On 8/9/2012 10:30 AM, Freedom Dude wrote:
>
>
> "the green flash" wrote in message news:k00mt7$t2s$8...@dont-email.me...
>
>
> Obama jokes about 'shovel-ready projects'
> Comments 353
> By David Jackson, USA TODAY Updated 2011-06-13 6:07 PM
>
>
> While meeting with his Jobs and Competitiveness Council today in Durham,
> N.C., President Obama cracked wise about one of his administration's
> early catchphrases.
>
> Remember "shovel-ready projects."
>
> Those were construction projects in the 2009 stimulus bill that were
> supposed to get moving right away -- but jobs council members told Obama
> today that some got held up because of elaborate government regulations
> and permitting procedures.
>
> "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected," Obama said.
>
>
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/06/obama-jokes-about-shovel-ready-projects/1
>
> ==========================================================================================
>
> The stimulus worked fine, it wasn't enough, it should have been bigger.
It never "worked fine" because we are still in a massively BAD economy,
have you kept up with what really transpired?
http://online.wsj.com
ECONOMYUpdated August 8, 2012, 4:33 p.m. ET.'Better Off?' Theme Framing
Election .
ALLENTOWN, Pa.—Are you better off than you were four years ago? Ronald
Reagan's famous question to voters in his 1980 campaign now looms over
the 2012 presidential election.
Barack Obama took office in January 2009—as credit markets stalled,
stocks plunged and unemployment shot higher. Nearly four years later,
many Americans have escaped the worst effects of the crisis. But they
have made little progress beyond that, according to several measures of
the U.S. economy.
In the six Wall Street Journal/NBC News national polls dating back to
January, Mr. Obama's handling of the economy has never won approving
reviews from more than 45% of respondents, while between half and 53%
have said they disapproved.
The unemployment rate, at 8.3%, is higher under Mr. Obama than it has
been for any president seeking re-election since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
One metric looms ominously over Mr. Obama's re-election effort: real
disposable income. A measure of income after inflation and taxes, real
disposable income per person has fallen 0.3% during Mr. Obama's tenure.
That compares poorly with presidents who successfully sought second
terms and those who lost. The figure rose 10.2% under Mr. Nixon, 10%
under Mr. Reagan, 5.2% under Mr. Clinton and 7.2% under George W. Bush.
Stacked against Mr. Obama's record, this pocketbook measure looked
brighter even under Mr. Carter (up 5%), and George H.W. Bush (up
3%)—both of whom lost their re-election bids.
Some people who say they feel better off now compared with four years
ago explain that it isn't because they are making much more money but
because they have put their finances in order.
Since Mr. Obama was elected, U.S. households have paid off—or
defaulted—on $746 billion of debt, an unprecedented reduction in the
modern era, Federal Reserve data show. With low interest rates and lower
debt loads, the monthly cost of servicing household debt as a share of
income has fallen to its lowest level in almost two decades.
Mr. Obama's signature economic program, the $825 billion American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was a combination of tax breaks and
spending programs aimed at arresting the economy's deep contraction in
early 2009 and stimulating growth. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office estimated the act created between 500,000 and 3.3 million
jobs—far less than the 8.7 million jobs lost during the downturn.