Contributors

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Impressive!

Just in time for the presidential election this year, some fine folks have created a site devoted exclusively to the president's achievements since taking office.  This is a fairly impressive list that offers links after each one to explore the accomplishment further.

The Economy section is replete with items and one in particular caught my eye. This link is an excellent summary of how the president's policies have helped the economy. Some of the charts and graphs may look familiar as I have put them up in various posts here and there but this organizes them all in one central location. We can clearly see the GDP growth, private sector job gains, public sector job loss (good for you libertarian folks who want to shrink the size of government:)) and just how large of a hole we were in.

The last point is very important because there are many out there who continually harp on how the stimulus didn't work. It's goal wasn't to magically turn us back to the prosperity of the 1990s. Given the depth of the problem, which certainly required a greater period of analysis than just a few months, its goal was to prevent another Great Depression. It did that. Pay close attention to Part III of the report as it shows the estimates of what would've happened had there been no recovery act.

From now until Election Day, I will be referring to this site frequently as we explore why and how the president has done a good job and should be re-elected.

13 comments:

juris "bully weasel" imprudent said...

Since your hero worship needs a little deflation.

6Kings said...

Obama is Historic

Mark Ward said...

I don't get it, juris. That's a site that I have linked before that is pro-Obama.

6Kings, thanks for illustrating your critical thinking skills. I'll pick one point on your list...

First President to halt deportations of illegal aliens and grant them work permits, a form of stealth amnesty roughly equivalent to "The DREAM Act", which could not pass Congress

and juxtapose it with this one.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/obamas-record-high-deportations-draw-hispanic-scorn/

Thoughts on your fantasy versus reality?

juris imprudent said...

LOL, no M it looks like that site, but it is a parody created by dissatisfied lefties that don't have that same hero worship thing going that you do.

6Kings said...

6Kings, thanks for illustrating your critical thinking skills.

Well, at least you recognize it! :)

Thoughts on your fantasy versus reality?

Well, apparently, you have trouble determining fantasy and reality.

They deport a high number (good thing) and then try to cut that number by half by ignoring the law of the land in that same article! Did you even read it?

Not only that, now we are getting information about the administration specifically putting a policy in place about ignoring the law, reducing deportations, and ignoring red flags for visa applications

Apparently, the enforcement was too good for Obama and now is doing everything he can to buy more votes and fix that 'reality'.

Great work there, skippy!

Mark Ward said...

juris, I'm still lost. Here's my original post.

http://markadelphia.blogspot.com/2010/11/wtf-has-obama-done.html

containing this link

http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

Here is your link which I just copied from above

http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

Look at the bottom. Same site authors. I think you may not be grasping the full sarcasm here. This site is making fun of the progressives out there (like my friend Andy) who think Obama hasn't done anything worthwhile. I did these posts for a while which prompted you to say, on 11-10-2010

And M, this fellating the President is getting a tad undignified. I don't think even the staunchest Republican sausage-lover ever spent as much time on his knees for Bush.

6Kings, actually I was being sarcastic. You were being critical, not thinking critically. No problem with that except it's hilariously one sided.

Did you even read it?

Oh, I read it. How seriously do you expect me to take a site labeled "For Lower Immigration Levels?" That in and of itself is ridiculously moronic idea given the nature of the global marketplace in 2012. We should be encouraging immigration to this country as it will make us more competitive. And all this mouth foaming fails to note that they are still deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants.

If you want to continue to offer right wing blogs as reliable sources of information that tell the whole truth, then you must accept all my left wing blogs that I could pull out on immigration are reliable sources as well. I'd like to able to take your seriously on this issue, 6Kings, but it's very hard when you are so emotional and set in your ways that you can't look for realistic solutions. "They broke the law...WAHHHHH" doesn't solve anything.

juris imprudent said...

Damn, my bad. I meant to link to this but gave you the original link.

GuardDuck said...

We should be encouraging immigration to this country as it will make us more competitive.

Can you expand upon that? Explain by what mechanism higher levels of immigration will make us more competitive?

Not that I disagree with the premise (or that I agree either, but I don't think you and I would arrive at that conclusion by taking the same route.

Mark Ward said...

No worries, juris. I guess what I'm wondering is why the right is so upset with him then. If he acts so much like a Republican, why do they hate him?

Can you expand upon that?

Sure. We should look at immigration as an issue of growing human capital. People come here and use our magnificent education system. And then they leave and go back to their home country. Obviously, this is going to happen to a certain degree but we need to encourage people to stay here. That means making it easier for them to do so which leads to immigration reform. But every time we try to do this, people go berserk and nothing gets done.

Jim Manzi (oft quoted on here) has some good thoughts on this.

We should reconceptualize immigration as recruiting. Assimilating immigrants is a demonstrated core capability of America's political economy — and it is one we should take advantage of. A robust-yet-reasonable amount of immigration is healthy for America. It is a continuing source of vitality — and, in combination with birth rates around the replacement level, creates a sustainable rate of overall ­population growth and age-demographic balance.

We should also set up recruiting offices looking for the best possible talent everywhere: from Mexico City to Beijing to Helsinki to Calcutta. Australia and Canada have demonstrated the practicality of skills-based immigration policies for many years. We should improve upon their example by using testing and other methods to apply a basic tenet of all human capital-intensive organizations managing for the long term: Always pick talent over skill. It would be great for America as a whole to have, say, 500,000 smart, motivated people move here each year with the intention of becoming citizens.


That's where I'd like us to be. Instead, as Manzi points out, we are here.

We have chosen a strategy that provides low-wage gardeners and nannies for the elite, low-cost home improvement and fresh produce for the middle class, and fierce wage competition for the working class.

That's why I say the best thing we can do is sift through all these people with comprehensive reform. Deport the violent offenders, embrace the ones that are here that want to work hard and legalize their status, get them paying taxes (which will help the debt and deficit), protect our borders more effectively, and streamline the immigration process to make it easier for people to move here.

I know that this is all easier said than done but we have to have a series of benchmarks laid out to get where we need to be. This is just a start.

juris imprudent said...

I guess what I'm wondering is why the right is so upset with him then.

Why, for the same reason you hated Bush so much. Not because of his policies but because of the team he played for.

GuardDuck said...

Wow Mark - I am mostly in agreement with you. The problem is that if I had proposed that you (or your ilk) would have accused me of racism.

Of course you ignore that there are many more countries in the world that have people who want to come to the US. Why do the people who can run across the border get to come in and the educated person in upper west-nowhereland gets denied after properly filing all the correct paperwork? Why does the person who followed the law get penalized and the person who did not gets rewarded?

Mark Ward said...

I don't think that I (or my "ilk") would have accused you of racism, GD. This is a serious problem that calls for out of the box thinking.

To answer your questions simply, it's because we allow it to happen so we can have a servant class. If you really want to stop illegals from coming in to our country, start prosecuting the businesses that hire them. Really doing it as opposed to just a slap on the wrist. As with the guys who committed fraud on Wall Street, a year or so in a real prison would end this sort of crap quickly.

Rather than blaming the guy who is just trying to have a better life, how about dismantling the system that allows this to happen? That means the Thurston Howells of the world are going to be screaming "class warfare," though.

GuardDuck said...

I'm all for that Mark.

But there's this thing called 'fake ID' that really complicates the matter.

See, I know you really want to believe most illegals are employed as maids and gardeners in Beverly Hills - but most really are actually employed by businesses that are required by law to verify their citizenship status when they are hired. They do this by checking and recording the information required by IRS form I-9. The problem is that an employer has no ability to verify that the documents are true, original or unaltered.

A story: My father owned a restaurant for several years. He would hire cooks, dishwashers etc. that were hispanic (it was a mexican food restaurant). He would check their ID and fill out the I-9 form as required. Six months or so after hiring a person he would get a letter from the IRS telling him that the social security number of the person was invalid and requested he correct the number. So he would go back to the employee and tell them about the letter. The employee would say that wasn't their correct number and come back the next day with a different social security card. This process would be repeated every six months or the employee would leave after the second or third 'try'. They would move on to another restaurant and the process would continue. Were the employees illegals? Probably. Could my father prove it? No, and he couldn't terminate them without cause without incurring the possible liability for a discrimination lawsuit.

Now, the government could operate at a more efficient pace and check the SSN's immediately when the taxes are paid on that account. The government could require the I-9's be sent in immediately and check the information then. But it does neither.

Then without the knowledge of this, you want to place the blame upon the business owner who hires the illegal.