Political News Bits of the Day

Discussing all things political in NW Arkansas and beyond.
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

Post by Dardedar »

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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The Best Presidents for the Economy

The Fool

"We're two weeks away from the presidential election. You will inevitably hear over the coming days that this will be one of the most important elections of our lifetimes. I'm not sure that's the case. One of my favorite election quotes comes from bank lobbyist Andrew Lowenthal: "Every election I've ever been involved with has been 'the most important election in history.' At some point, it's not. It's just the path of history."

In general, presidents get too much credit for the economy when things are good, and too much blame when things are poor. We tend to imagine every blip in the stock market and every unemployment report as a direct reflection of a president's policies -- particularly during election years. In reality, Congress and the Federal Reserve probably have just as much, if not more, sway over the economy than any president. And one president's policies can spill over into the next administration, making it difficult to sort out who is liable for what. We have a hard enough time accurately measuring what the economy is doing, let along assigning responsibility for its moves.

Still, everyone should know a little economic history. And the cleanest way to get a feel for how the economy has done under past presidents is to just lay the numbers bare.

Here are five economic variables going back to 1900, covering every president from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

1. Stock market performance
This is the inflation-adjusted, dividend-adjusted, performance of the S&P 500:

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For corporate profits/growth, he's number one:

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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This is our electoral map resized to represent the population of each state.

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And Daily KOS
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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The Week in God

"First up from the God Machine this week is a look at the 2012 presidential election, and the differences along religious lines. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life published a report this week based on exit polling data, and I put together a chart based on its findings."

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Blue on the left, red on the right:

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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"The most logical explanation for the pattern is that something common to all Republicans brought them down, and the simplest explanation is that their party is weak — and has been for a long time. Consider the evidence: Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. Since the Senate reached its current size, Democrats have had more than 55 seats 13 times; Republicans, never.

Before settling on this story of party weakness, we need to examine three apparent pieces of evidence of strength. The first is that Republicans retained control of the House even as they lost the presidential and Senate races. Republicans are likely to have their second-largest House majority in 60 years. They appear, however, to have narrowly lost the popular vote for the House. One reason they won so many seats anyway is that 2010 was an unusually good Republican year, and Republicans were therefore able to draw the lines of congressional districts following that year’s census. What the House success demonstrates, in part, is that Republicans can do well when they choose the voters rather than vice versa."

--National Review, The Party’s Problem
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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The RightWingers are throwing losers off the Island


"I’m not being snarky when I say that the best thing George W. Bush has done for conservatism has been to withdraw almost completely from the national stage, and to devote himself to private life and doing low-key good works. He has nothing else useful to say or to do in American politics. So, bless him, he’s saying nothing."
...
"Which other prominent conservatives should get a Dubya? Newt Gingrich is one. He has nothing left to say or to do, except go on whatever the GOP version of the dinner theater circuit is, where celebrity has-beens go to live out their senescence. Karl Rove is another.

Their list grows long...it's understandable, found at The American Conservative
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Corporate profits are highest-ever share of GDP, while wages are lowest-ever

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Daily Kos
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Filed under... rank hypocrisy:

Top 15 Anti-Gay Activists Caught Being Gay
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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GOP Debunked: Obama did not create $5 trillion in new debt

"Republican pundits love to say that the national debt has increased by $5 trillion because of President Obama. Factually, that statement is simply untrue. Let's examine the evidence.

Of the alleged $5 trillion, $1.6 trillion is related to costs of the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars. These were costs George W. Bush intentionally hid from the budget, and that President Obama allowed to be calculated when he assumed office.

Note that Obama could have continued to hide the bill as Bush did, passing it along to his successor.

President Bush was able to manipulate funding for the Iraq/Afghanistan wars using special emergency authorization bills. He did this because, as you recall, the Democrats were attempting to defund the war legislatively.

The overall point is simple: Obama, as president, authorized not one cent of that $1.6 trillion to be spent.

It has been previously reported by marketwatch.com that President Obama increased overall government spending by a smaller margin than any modern president, all the way to President Eisenhower.

Rex Nutting at marketwatch clarifies:

What people forget (or never knew) is that the first year of every presidential term starts with a budget approved by the previous administration and Congress. The president only begins to shape the budget in his second year. It takes time to develop a budget and steer it through Congress — especially in these days of congressional gridlock.

Over $1.4 trillion was spent on interest payments caused by the already standing debt.

Knowing that, let's examine the GOP's argument.

They say President Obama has spent too much, but 32% of the total amount they claim has been spent is a direct result of Republican presidential policies, and previous spending.

President Obama is stuck paying the bill for the previous GOP administrations of Reagan, H.W. Bush, and W. Bush. President Clinton left with a surplus if you recall, and added nothing to our debt. This point has been discussed constantly, and was even visited by President Obama's former Press Secretary Jay Carney during a press gaggle.

It is not disputed that the national debt was $10 trillion before President Obama took office.

The interest that is paid on the debt today was created by the very same people who now are attempting to blame the cost of that interest on the president. Do not allow yourself to be fooled, the GOP is attempting to blame the president for something they caused.

Now our journey of $5 trillion has been twiddled down to $2 trillion."

...

Links and references and the rest here... Examiner
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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The Right's Library of Fake Quotes
Putting words in dead people’s mouths

"Abraham Lincoln despised class warfare, Thomas Jefferson detested bailouts and the founders of the nation were all Bible-believing Christians. These are among the historical “facts” you’ll learn as a regular consumer of talk radio, Fox News and other conservative sources.
While non-conservatives have been known to misquote historical figures to add credibility to their own views, the right seems to have a special enthusiasm for putting words in dead people’s mouths."

FAIR
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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The ‘suicidal’ Republican resistance to compromise

Excerpt:

"The Pew Research Center recently came out with a study that shows how we as Americans think about political compromise. The good news is that half of us like elected officials who make compromises with people they disagree with. This is especially good news given that just two years ago only 40% of Americans liked officials who compromised. However, a very different picture emerges when that figure is broken down by party.
Close to 60% of Democrats like to see elected officials compromise. In contrast, slightly more than one-third of Republicans do not like to see their elected officials compromise. For a majority of the GOP’s rank-and-file, it’s their way, or “no way.”
In his column last Saturday, the New York Times‘ Charles Blow referred to these unbendable Republicans as “suicide conservatives.” These are the folks that will not support any sort of compromise even among their own party. Not only are these conservative partisans willing to go down, but they’ll take down those around them."

LINK

[correction noted and fixed]
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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The original has a typo that you left uncorrected. "In contrast, slightly more than one-third of Republicans do not like to see their elected officials compromise" should have omitted the "do not."
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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The party 'in need of a major makeover'

Chart: NBC/WSJ poll shows Americans trust Democrats more on every -- every -- domestic issue.

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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Iraq war costs U.S. more than $2 trillion: study

(Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans,
expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said.

"...an update of a 2011 report the Watson Institute produced ahead of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks that assessed the cost in dollars and lives from the resulting wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

The 2011 study said the combined cost of the wars was at least $3.7 trillion, based on actual expenditures from the U.S. Treasury and future commitments, such as the medical and disability claims of U.S. war veterans.

That estimate climbed to nearly $4 trillion in the update...

Excluded were indirect deaths caused by the mass exodus of doctors and a devastated infrastructure, for example, while the costs left out trillions of dollars in interest the United States could pay over the next 40 years.

The interest on expenses for the Iraq war could amount to about $4 trillion during that period, the report said.

..."Action needed to be taken," said Steven Bucci, the military assistant to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the run-up to the war and today a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think-tank.

Bucci, who was unconnected to the Watson study, agreed with its observation that the forecasts for the cost and duration of the war proved to be a tiny fraction of the real costs.

"If we had had the foresight to see how long it would last and even if it would have cost half the lives, we would not have gone in," Bucci said. "Just the time alone would have been enough to stop us. Everyone thought it would be short."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/ ... PG20130314
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Re: Political News Bits of the Day

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