Mr. President, I thought we were better friends than this. A Reuters article this morning reads:
President Barack Obama is pointing to problems in Japan and Europe as challenges for the U.S. economy, placing some blame on events abroad for a domestic recovery that is showing signs of slowing down.
...Part of his pitch will include steering attention to outside forces as causes for economic woes at home.
The president did just that in his weekly radio and Internet address, broadcast on Saturday, by highlighting "head winds" that are affecting the United States."
"..."Lately, it's high gas prices, the earthquake in Japan, and unease about the European fiscal situation.
This is a gold mine of hypocrisy. First, Obama's administration ignored high gas prices until three Republican bills threatened to steal political capital by actually getting something done on the drilling front, after which the administration was forced to make some concessions to the pro-drill contingent (whether any oil is actually drilled for as a result remains to be seen).
Second, Obama's "stimulus" clearly didn't work at home, with unemployment rising, but we also tried stimulating Europe through bailouts. Guess what? That clearly hasn't worked either. And now Obama wants to try the exact same thing again and dump more money into Egypt.
He's also claiming victory with the auto bailouts: "Today, each of the Big Three automakers – Chrysler, GM, and Ford – is turning a profit for the first time since 2004."
But there's this catch from the Wall Street Journal: "Although U.S. auto companies have rebounded and paid back significant portions of government aid, U.S. officials this week said they still expect taxpayers to lose about $14 billion on the bailouts."
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