June 13, 2011

5 Questions For Obama

Five Questions Americans Want Answered During Obamas Interview With Ann Curry
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1. On May 19th You Said That The Economy Is Now Recovered. Most Americans Disagree, With Fifty Seven Percent Of Americans Saying An Economic Recovery Has Not Yet Begun, And With All Of The Bad Economic Data That Has Come To Light Over The Past Few Weeks How Can You Honestly Say That The Economy Is Recovering? Why Should Americans Give You A Second Chance If This Is Your Idea Of A Recovered Economy? 2. When You Started Receiving A Daily Economic Briefing, You Said It Was Important To Receive The Most Up-To Date Information On The Economy Every Day. With Eighty One Percent Of Americans Saying The Economy Is Poor, And One In Three Americans Saying They Expect To Be Poorer Next Year, Why Have You Stopped Receiving A Daily Economic Briefing? Doesnt This Show That Youre Hopelessly Out Of Touch With The Concerns Of The American People? 3. When You Ignored The Release Of Unemployment Numbers While In Ohio, Were You Agreeing With Your Top Advisor David Axelrods Assessment That The Unemployment Statistics Are Meaningless? 4. Your National Labor Review Board Is Denying Boeing The Right To Open A Plant In South Carolina That Will Create At Least A Thousand Jobs. Congress Is Investigating This Regulatory Overreach. Will You Break Your Silence On This Issue And Condemn This Shocking And Frightening Display Of Washington Interference? 5. You Still Have Not Presented A Credible Plan To Reduce The Deficit And Have Instead Fallen Back On Partisan Attacks. Is This Contributing To Why Americans No Longer Trust Your Ability To Manage The Budget?

1. On May 19th You Said That The Economy Is Now Recovered. Most Americans Disagree, With Fifty Seven Percent Of Americans Saying An Economic Recovery Has Not Begun, And Experts Raising The Possibility Of A Double Dip Recession. With All Of The Terrible Economic Data That Has Come To Light Over The Past Few Weeks How Can You Honestly Say That The Economy Is Recovering? Why Should Americans Give You A Second Chance If This Is Your Idea Of A Recovered Economy?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: And As Debbie Mentioned, Because Of The Actions We Took, The Economy Is
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Now Recovered; Its Growing Again.(President Obama, Remarks By The President At A DNC Event, Washington D.C., 5/19/11) 57 Percent Of Americans Say An Economic Recovery Has Not Begun. (ABC News/The Washington Post, 1002 A, MoE
3.5%, 6/2-5/11)

BLS Commissioner Keith Hall Said That Mays Disappointing Employment Numbers Reflect General Weakening In Job Growth. Bad US payrolls data for May appear to reflect a general weakening in job growth rather than any temporary distortion, the head of the agency that compiles the statistics said in an interview with the Financial Times. (Robin Harding, US Data Chief Warns On Employment, Financial Times, 6/5/11) The Housing Market Is A Sinkhole For The Economy. The sinkholes in the economy should be obvious. Most prominently, the housing market is still awful, and state and local government budgets are still a mess. (Editorial, The Numbers Are Grim, The New York Times, 5/31/11) S&P/Case-Shiller Home-Price Data Indicated A Clear Double-Dip For Housing, As A TaxCredit-Induced Bump Last Year Was Erased And National Prices Fell Back To Mid-2002 Levels. (Phil Izzo, A Look At Case-Shiller, By Metro Area (May Update), The Wall Street Journals Real Time Economics, 5/31/11) Manufacturing Indicators Plunged In May As The Sector Ran Out Of Steam. The ISMs new-orders index plunged 10.7 percentage points to 51.0%, while the production index sank 9.8 percentage points to 54.0%. Also, the backlog of orders index, which reflects future sales in the pipeline, plunged 10.5 percentage points to 50.5%. The employment index, meanwhile, fell to 58.2% from 62.7% in April, and the inventories gauge declined to 48.7% from 53.6%. (Jeffry Bartash, ISM Manufacturing Guage Tumbles In May, MarketWatch, 6/1/11) The ISM Manufacturing Index Has Fallen To Its Lowest Level Since 2002. The newest report causing concern is the ISM manufacturing index, released Wednesday morning, which showed that manufacturing growth has slowed to its lowest rate since 2009, in part due to rising commodity prices. (Nathaniel Popper, Dow
Falls 279 Points On Fears About Economy, Los Angeles Times, 6/1/11)

2. When You Started Receiving A Daily Economic Briefing, You Said It Was Important To Receive The Most Up-To Date Information On The Economy Every Day. With Eighty One Percent Of Americans Saying The Economy Is Poor, And One In Three Americans Saying They Expect To Be Poorer Next Year, Why Have You Stopped Receiving A Daily Economic Briefing? Doesnt This Show That Youre Hopelessly Out Of Touch With The Concerns Of The American People?
Former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: Obama Felt It Was Important That Each Day He Receive The Most Up-To-Date Information As It Relates To The Economy The President asked that this be added each day to his schedule, as the country is in the midst of an economic crisis and an economic emergency. And he felt it was important that each day he receive the most up-to-date information as it relates to the economy, as we put together an economic reinvestment and recovery plan, as well as future financial stability packages, to ensure that our economy gets moving again. (Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, 12/2/09) Obama Has Stopped Receiving A Daily Economic Briefing. At some point during the first two years of his administration, President Obama stopped receiving the daily economic briefing that he requested when he took office. (Sam Youngman, Daily Economic Briefings Disappear From Obama's White House Schedule, The Hill, 6/6/11) 81 Percent Of Americans Say The Current Economic Condition Is Poor. (CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll, 1015
A, MoE 3%, 6/3-7/11)

45 Percent Of Americans Call Unemployment Extremely Important To Their Vote In Next Years Election, 51 Percent Say The Same About The Economy.(CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll, 1015 A,
MoE 3%, 6/3-7/11)

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One In Three Likely Voters Think They Will Be Poorer Next Year. More than one in three likely voters expect to be worse off when they go to the polls a year from this November, a somber fact for President Obamas reelection campaign, while just 25 percent believe they will be better off, according to this weeks The Hill poll. (John T. Bennett, The Hill Poll: Many Voters Expect To Become Poorer, The Hill, 6/6/11) Sixty Five Percent Of Likely Voters Think The Country Is On The Wrong Track. Thirty-nine percent said they expect to be in the same economic position they are now, but 65 percent also said they believe the country is on the wrong track. (John T. Bennett, The Hill Poll: Many Voters Expect To Become Poorer, The
Hill, 6/6/11)

3. When You Ignored The Release Of Unemployment Numbers While In Ohio, Were You Agreeing With Your Top Advisor David Axelrods Assessment That The Unemployment Statistics Are Meaningless?
Obama Didnt Mention The Jobs Report While In Ohio. President Obama didn't mention the jobs report today when he visited a Chrysler plant in Ohio. CBS News national correspondent Dean Reynolds reports Mr. Obama did say the economy faces bumps on the road to recovery. (Dean Reynolds, Toledo Auto Workers Hope For
Recovery, CBS News, 6/3/11)

Obama Adviser David Axelrod Said Talk About 9.1% Unemployment Rate Is A Meaningless Discussion. One monthly job figures are more robust than expected and everybody goes tearing up the one direction, and the next month they're not as good and they go in the other, Axelrod said, referring to the negative reaction that greeted news of May's anemic jobs growth. For the average person this is a meaningless discussion, what is meaningful is what they experience in their own lives. (Sam Stein, David Axelrod
Downplays Bad Jobs News, Says Austan Goolsbee To Play Big Reelection Role, The Huffington Post, 6/8/11)

In May, The Nation Only Gained 54,000 Jobs, The Lowest Amount In Eight Months.(Bureau Of Labor Statistics,
BLS.gov, Accessed 6/3/11)

The Average Duration Of Unemployment Increased To A Record 39.7 Weeks. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics,
BLS.gov, Accessed 6/3/11)

The Unemployment Rate Increased From 9.0 Percent To 9.1 Percent. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, BLS.gov,
Accessed 6/3/11)

4. Your National Labor Review Board Is Denying Boeing The Right To Open A Plant In South Carolina That Will Create At Least A Thousand Jobs, And Has Already Opened. Will You Break Your Silence On This Issue And Condemn This Shocking And Frightening Display Of Washington Interference?
Obamas National Labor Relations Board Has Declared That Boeing Opening A New Plant In South Carolina Would Be Illegal. At issue is whether Boeing, which is slated to open a plant this summer in North Charleston and create thousands of jobs, can legally do so. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) contends in a complaint recently filed against Boeing that the company cant open its plant in right to work South Carolina because the move is allegedly motivated by an attempt to avoid strikes and thus intimidate Boeing workers elsewhere.(Kathleen Parker, Op-Ed, The NLRB Fires A Shot South Carolina Cant Ignore, The Washington Post,
4/22/11)

Denver Post: Boeing Has Already Poured Billions Into The Facilities And Have Hired 1,000 Workers. Boeing, a vital U.S. company, wants to build a plant in South Carolina and bring good-paying manufacturing jobs to the state. They've already poured billions into the facilities and have hired 1,000 workers. But the NLRB filed a lawsuit last month to force Boeing back to Washington state, where workers would be represented by a union. (Editorial, Killing Jobs In South Carolina, The Denver Post, 5/2/11)
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It's The First Time A Federal Agency Has Intervened To Tell An American Company Where It Can And Cannot Operate A Plant Within The U.S. (Arthur B. Laffer & Stephen Moore, Op-Ed, Boeing And The Union Berlin Wall, The Wall
Street Journal, 5/13/11)

The NLRB Is Controlled By President Obama's Appointees, And The White House Silence On Their Actions Amounts To An Endorsement. (Editorial, Another Labor Board Power Play, The Wall Street Journal, 5/23/11) Savannah Morning News: The NRLBs Action Against Boeing Is A Shocking And Frightening Display Of Washington Interference. In a shocking and frightening display of Washington interference, the National Labor Relations Board has taken unprecedented legal action against The Boeing Company to prevent it from expanding production in the Palmetto State. Why? Because the federal board claims that a private company that creates jobs in a right-to-work state like South Carolina is engaging in an unfair labor practice.(Editorial, Boeing Plant: Job Killing In S.C., The Savannah Morning News, 5/5/11) Boeing Celebrated The Opening Of The Plant On June 10th. Airplane manufacturing company Boeing celebrated the opening of its new 787 plant in South Carolina Friday, despite an ongoing lawsuit the National Labor Relations Board about the company's decision not to locate the facility in Washington state.
(Keith Laing, Despite Lawsuit, Boeing Opens South Carolina 787 Plant, The Hills Transportation Report, 6/10/11)

5. You Still Have Not Presented A Credible Plan To Reduce The Deficit And Have Instead Fallen Back On Partisan Attacks. Is This Contributing To Why Americans No Longer Trust Your Ability To Manage The Budget?
Obama Has No Plan To Balance The Budget Ever. (Robert Samuelson, Op-Ed, Obama Abdicates On The Budget, The
Washington Post, 4/24/11)

We Arent Having This Debate, And President Obama Is Mainly To Blame. His Recent Budget Speech At George Washington University Was A Telling Model Of Evasion, Contradiction And Deception.
(Robert Samuelson, Op-Ed, Obama Abdicates On The Budget, The Washington Post, 4/24/11)

CBS News' Mark Knoller: "Even if every provision of President Obama's deficit reduction plan is enacted and he concedes it won't be - there still won't be a balanced budget on the horizon. And the National Debt will continue to expand by trillions of dollars." (Mark Knoller, "Obama Deficit Reduction Plan Leaves Deficits," CBS News, 4/13/11) Instead, Obamas Supposed Budget Proposal Was Nothing More Than A Reelection Speech. President Barack Obama gave a terrific reelection speech Wednesday. It wasnt billed as that. It was supposed to be a number-packed speech about budgeting and spending and all manner of fiscal gobbledygook.(Roger Simon, Barack Obama To Soak Rich, Please Democrats, Politico, 4/13/11) NBCs First Read: Yet The Speech Also Was Inconsistent By Blasting The GOP Idea But Then Calling For Both Sides To Still Come Together.(NBCs First Read, 4/14/11) The Atlantics Clive Crook: The Speech Was More Notable For Its Militant--Though Ineffectual-Hostility To Republican Proposals Than For Any Fresh Thinking Of Its Own. (Clive Crook, Obamas
Speech Was A Waste Of Breath, The Atlantic, 4/13/11)

61 Percent Of Americans Disapprove Of How Obama Is Handling The Deficit. (ABC News/The Washington Post,
1002 A, MoE 3.5%, 6/2-5/11)

44 Percent Of Americans Say The Deficit Will Be An Extremely Important Factor In Their Vote For President. (CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll, 1015 A, MoE 3%, 6/3-7/11)

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