Here is Obama's "victory" speech following the GOP surrender on the debt ceiling issue, a fight they chose to have but were unwilling to finish.
Understand that 162 Republicans stood against a total capitulation, while 116 (lead my McCain and Peter King) fought for the surrender. You should be reminded that Obama's only political victory since being re-elected, I say "the only political victory," has been raising the debt ceiling. He celebrates getting to spend more money!? Wow.
Again, here is the full transcript as this partisan hack of a president gloats over this "victory," while trying, desperately, to put congress and the GOP in a position of having to approve of his continuing plans to "fundamentally transform" these Divided States.
My notes (since he will not debate anyone on the issues) are in red.
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning,
everybody. Please have a seat.
Well, last
night, I signed legislation to reopen our government and pay America’s
bills. Because Democrats and responsible Republicans came together, the
first government shutdown in 17 years is now over.
The last shutdown (1995/96) actually cost the GOP nothing. They lost 3 seats in the House, gained 3 seats in the Senate, and positioned themselves to force Clinton to balance the budget for the next four years -- all of this contrary to the myth that the Gingrich shutdown was a disaster for the GOP. Not true in the slightest.
The first default in
more than 200 years will not happen.
The fact that this buffoon admits to other shutdowns proves that "default" is not the unavoidable result of a shutdwon. The Washington Post lists 17 shutdowns since 1976. None of them forced the nation into default. But none took place under a president willing to take this nation over the brink to serve his own personal agenda for this nation. None.
These twin threats to our economy
have now been lifted. And I want to thank those Democrats and Republicans
for getting together and ultimately getting this job done.
He is not thanking anyone. He is gloating as he tries to separate and destroy the conservative opposition in congress.
Now,
there’s been a lot of discussion lately of the politics of this shutdown.
But let’s be clear: There are no winners here. These last few weeks
have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy. We don’t
know yet the full scope of the damage, but every analyst out there believes it
slowed our growth.
The is simply not true. Most of the pain felt by this country, was inflicted by Obama, himself, as he manipulated circumstances to appear as though extreme pain was the result. And, make no mistake, he will use this partial shutdown as an excuse for continuing bad news as relates to his feckless leadership per the economy.
We know
that families have gone without paychecks or services they depend on.
Paychecks were postponed for some government employees. They will be fully reimbursed. Understand that the "shutdown" simply did not last long enough to cause any serious pain.
We
know that potential homebuyers have gotten fewer mortgages, and small business
loans have been put on hold. We know that consumers have cut back on
spending, and that half of all CEOs say that the shutdown and the threat of
shutdown set back their plans to hire over the next six months.
This is a bold faced lie. He will not present proof for this statement because he can't. Again, keep in mind that this partial shutdown lasted a little over two stinking weeks. But the press will parrot this idiotic claim and the reckless spending of the Socialist"Progressives in both parties, will continue.
We know
that just the threat of default — of America not paying all the bills that we
owe on time — increased our borrowing costs, which adds to our deficit.
Obama will not be able to show a single lasting deficit issue as a result of the past two weeks. And, since when did he start caring about deficits, anyway? He commissioned Boles/Simpson and when they came up with their plan, including spending cuts, he dismissed them (Boles and Simpson) and threw their recommendations out the window.
And, of
course, we know that the American people’s frustration with what goes on in
this town has never been higher. That's not a surprise that the American people
are completely fed up with Washington. At a moment when our economic
recovery demands more jobs, more momentum, we've got yet another self-inflicted
crisis that set our economy back. And for what?
There was
no economic rationale for all of this.
We borrow 42% of all the money we spend, each year, each week, each minute. If he spends one federal dollar for anything, we have to borrow 42 cents of that money. Even when we pay on the interest on our debt, we have to borrow 42 cents of every dollar, to do so. We have to borrow money to pay the debt on the money we borrow !!! Good grief !!! I call that "rationale." Surely, he cannot be this stupid.
Over the past four years, our
economy has been growing, our businesses have been creating jobs, and our
deficits have been cut in half. We hear some members who pushed for the
shutdown say they were doing it to save the American economy — but nothing has
done more to undermine our economy these past three years than the kind of
tactics that create these manufactured crises.
Nothing "manufactured" when it comes to our 17 trillion dollar debt. Nothing manufactured about the 6 million Americans who have left the workforce, no longer looking for work since he became president, because there is nothing for them in terms of jobs. Nothing manufactured about an Obama economy that has grown the food stamp population from 28 million in the beginning of 2009 to 47 million, today. How is that representative of a "recovering" economy?
And you
don’t have to take my word for it. The agency that put America’s credit
rating on watch the other day explicitly cited all of this, saying that our
economy “remains more dynamic and resilient” than other advanced economies, and
that the only thing putting us at risk is — and I'm quoting here — “repeated
brinksmanship.” That's what the credit rating agency said. That
wasn’t a political statement; that was an analysis of what’s hurting our
economy by people whose job it is to analyze these things.
That also
happens to be the view of our diplomats who’ve been hearing from their
counterparts internationally. Some of the same folks who pushed for the
shutdown and threatened default
only Obama threatened default. Only Obama.
claim their actions were needed to get America
back on the right track, to make sure we're strong.
In a recent Gallup poll, 82% of all Americans, believe this nation is on "the wrong track," and that is a fact he does not quote.
But probably nothing
has done more damage to America's credibility in the world, our standing with other
countries, than the spectacle that we've seen these past several weeks.
It's encouraged our enemies. It's emboldened our competitors. And
it's depressed our friends who look to us for steady leadership.
What can I say. It is easy to make such claims, but the fact remains that his benign foreign policy has made him the most unpopular president in modern times.
Now, the
good news is we'll bounce back from this. We always do. America is
the bedrock of the global economy for a reason. We are the indispensable
nation that the rest of the world looks to as the safest and most reliable
place to invest — something that’s made it easier for generations of Americans
to invest in their own futures. We have earned that responsibility over
more than two centuries because of the dynamism of our economy and our
entrepreneurs, the productivity of our workers, but also because we keep our
word and we meet our obligations. That’s what full faith and credit means
— you can count on us.
And today,
I want our people and our businesses and the rest of the world to know that the
full faith and credit of the United States remains unquestioned.
But to all
my friends in Congress, understand that how business is done in this town has
to change. Because we've all got a lot of work to do on behalf of the
American people — and that includes the hard work of regaining their
trust.
His personal approval numbers are the lowest of his presidency and - at 37% in the latest AP poll - as low as during the Bush 43 years. More than this, he has a 28% approval rating for his handling of the economy, so what in the world is he talking about, here, as if he is not the primary problem?
with the following, he continues his assault on the Second Amendment : Our system of self-government doesn’t function without it.
And now that the government is reopened, and this threat to our economy is
removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and
the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from
conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do, and
that’s grow this economy; create good jobs; strengthen the middle class;
educate our kids; lay the foundation for broad-based prosperity and get our
fiscal house in order for the long haul. That’s why we're here.
That should be our focus.
Now, that
won't be easy. We all know that we have divided government right
now.
Its always been divided, jack.
There's a lot of noise out there, and the pressure from the extremes
affect how a lot of members of Congress see the day-to-day work that’s supposed
to be done here. And let's face it, the American people don’t see every issue
the same way. But that doesn’t mean we can't make progress. And
when we disagree, we don’t have to suggest that the other side doesn’t love
this country or believe in free enterprise, or all the other rhetoric that
seems to get worse every single year.
Let's see, he has called my side of the aisle "teabaggers" and accused us of hating people of color, of being racists, of sounding like Nazi's and members of the KKK. Indeed, it is Obama, personally, and so many members of his side of the aisle that are driving the partisan rhetoric.
If we disagree on something, we can
move on and focus on the things we agree on, and get some stuff done.
Let me be
specific about three places where I believe we can make progress right
now. First, in the coming days and weeks, we should sit down and pursue a
balanced approach to a responsible budget, a budget that grows our economy
faster and shrinks our long-term deficits further.
Since he does not believe in a balanced budget amendment or in spending cuts, what the hell is he talking about? The fact of this matter is this: he is just trying to sound responsible, and nothing more.
At the
beginning of this year, that’s what both Democrats and Republicans committed to
doing. The Senate passed a budget; House passed a budget; they were
supposed to come together and negotiate. And had one side not decided to
pursue a strategy of brinksmanship, each side could have gotten together and
figured out, how do we shape a budget that provides certainty to businesses and
people who rely on government, provides certainty to investors in our economy,
and we’d be growing faster right now.
The "budget" process this deceiver is talking about, was shutdown by Harry Reid, in the Senate. That is why it never made it to "conference." More than this, the Democrats did not even propose a budget, made no effort whatsoever, during the first three years of Obama's presidency . . . . first time in the history of this country we went without a budget for one year, much less three. Understand that he proposed budgets for the first couple of years. Yes he did. One was voted down in the House by a vote of 414 to zero. On two other occasions, the Senate voted against his budget, 95 to zero, one year, and 97 to zero the next. Those are the facts and they go directly to his inability to lead in matters of the economy.
Now, the
good news is the legislation I signed yesterday now requires Congress to do
exactly that — what it could have been doing all along.
And we
shouldn’t approach this process of creating a budget as an ideological exercise
— just cutting for the sake of cutting. The issue is not growth versus
fiscal responsibility — we need both. We need a budget that deals with
the issues that most Americans are focused on: creating more good jobs
that pay better wages.
Per my comments immediately above, clearly this man has no clue when it comes to working out a budget. Heck, he couldn't enlist a single member of his own party to sign onto his budget proposals.
And
remember, the deficit is getting smaller, not bigger. It’s going down
faster than it has in the last 50 years.
Bush 43 average deficit: $440 billion per year. Obama's first four years: 1.3 trillion. Bush 43 raised the national debt by a little over 4 trillion in eight years. Obama has added 6 trillion to our debt in just 4 years. He has also raised taxes on the American people and the Middle Class, more than all presidents since and including Reagan, combined! The "deficit" to which he refers, is not the national debt. That never goes down. He is talking about his annual march into debt. But because of the avalanche of rising taxation, his fifth year deficit will be somewhere between 700 billion and 900 billion, down from 1.3 trillion the year before. Again, a function of rising taxes and nothing more -- almost one trillion dollars in new taxes, btw !!
The challenges we have right now are
not short-term deficits; it’s the long-term obligations that we have around
things like Medicare and Social Security. We want to make sure those are
there for future generations.
So the key
now is a budget that cuts out the things that we don’t need, closes corporate
tax loopholes that don’t help create jobs, and frees up resources for the
things that do help us grow — like education and infrastructure and
research.
Manufacturing grows the economy, as well as real, private sector, housing starts. Repair to our infrastructure, while needed in the most critical of ways, is not a source of economic growth that amounts to or advances a recovery. We have been repairing our infrastructure for decades. We must have educated people in the work force, but neither "education" nor "research" have any short-term or immediate influence on a "recovering" economy. Lowering the tax burden, getting rid of thousands of pages of regulations, developing strategies that encourage our industrial complex to come back to America, these are the things we need to do for the sake of a strong and growing economy -- none of which are ideas and principles of finance, this man believes in. He has no private sector experience in the work force nor does he have any educational training in finance . . . . none.
And these things historically have not been partisan. And
this shouldn’t be as difficult as it’s been in past years because we already
spend less than we did a few years ago.
Again, and based on what I have just written, "we" are "spending less than we did a few years ago" only if we compare our present spending habits to Obama's budgets since 2009. He cannot compare "reduced spending" to any other Administration or president, in the history of this nation. This year's deficit will be 700/900 billion while the next big spender, George W Bush, averaged 440 billion in deficit spending. Obama wants you to believe that his spending reduction is historical. Instead, I find his claims phony and hysterical.
Our deficits are half of what
they were a few years ago.
Once again, and I want to drive this point home: his statement above, is only true when compared to his own 5 year history. A "few years ago" does not extend beyond 2009, but he makes it sound otherwise.
The debt problems we have now are long term,
and we can address them without shortchanging our kids, or shortchanging our
grandkids, or weakening the security that current generations have earned from
their hard work.
So that’s
number one. Number two, we should finish fixing the job of — let me say
that again. Number two, we should finish the job of fixing our broken
immigration system.
In 2009/2010, he had a congress with no GOP opposition whatsoever. "Super majorities" in the House and Senate meant that the Democrats could pass ANY LEGISLATION they wanted. ObamaCare, for example, passed through congress without a single GOP vote, not one. And why? Because the Dems had "super majorities" in both houses of congress. My point being this: he could have passed a comprehensive immigration bill during this time, as he promised, a bill that gave overt amnesty to all illegals, and the GOP or conservative minority, could not have done a single thing to stop it. So why didn't he do this?
His speech continues, but I have said all that needs to be said. The legislation he refers to in the remaining words of this speech, is full of rules, regulations, more taxes and more federal agencies. It is a fact, that his people love to insert their hidden agenda into each and every piece of legislation passed by the Socialist/Progressive majority. That is why Pelosi was not concerned about passing an unwritten bill - the finishing touches are and will be written by unnamed "worker bees" within this Administration. No one read ObamaCare or the Dodd/Frank finance bills, before voting to approve them, and they are full of his socialist/one world crap, because of the reason I just presented. Who knew? Answer: No one - because this bunch of morons are confident in the notion that you have to write and pass a bill before you can know what is in it.
The remainder of his victory speech follows:
There's
already a broad coalition across America that’s behind this effort of
comprehensive immigration reform — from business leaders to faith leaders to law
enforcement. In fact, the Senate has already passed a bill with strong
bipartisan support that would make the biggest commitment to border security in
our history; would modernize our legal immigration system; make sure everyone
plays by the same rules, makes sure that folks who came here illegally have to
pay a fine, pay back taxes, meet their responsibilities. That bill has
already passed the Senate. And economists estimate that if that bill becomes
law, our economy would be 5 percent larger two decades from now. That’s
$1.4 trillion in new economic growth.
The
majority of Americans think this is the right thing to do. And it's
sitting there waiting for the House to pass it. Now, if the House has
ideas on how to improve the Senate bill, let's hear them. Let's start the
negotiations. But let's not leave this problem to keep festering for
another year, or two years, or three years. This can and should get done
by the end of this year.
Number
three, we should pass a farm bill, one that American farmers and ranchers can
depend on; one that protects vulnerable children and adults in times of need;
one that gives rural communities opportunities to grow and the long-term
certainty that they deserve.
Again, the
Senate has already passed a solid bipartisan bill. It's got support from
Democrats and Republicans. It's sitting in the House waiting for
passage. If House Republicans have ideas that they think would improve
the farm bill, let's see them. Let's negotiate. What are we waiting
for? Let's get this done.
So,
passing a budget; immigration reform; farm bill. Those are three specific
things that would make a huge difference in our economy right now. And we
could get them done by the end of the year if our focus is on what's good for
the American people. And that’s just the big stuff. There are all kinds
of other things that we could be doing that don’t get as much attention.
I
understand we will not suddenly agree on everything now that the cloud of
crisis has passed. Democrats and Republicans are far apart on a lot of
issues. And I recognize there are folks on the other side who think that
my policies are misguided — that’s putting it mildly. That’s okay.
That’s democracy. That’s how it works. We can debate those differences
vigorously, passionately, in good faith, through the normal democratic process.
And
sometimes, we'll be just too far apart to forge an agreement. But that
should not hold back our efforts in areas where we do agree. We shouldn’t
fail to act on areas that we do agree or could agree just because we don’t
think it's good politics; just because the extremes in our party don’t like the
word “compromise.”
I will
look for willing partners wherever I can to get important work done. And
there's no good reason why we can't govern responsibly, despite our
differences, without lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured
crisis. In fact, one of the things that I hope all of us have learned
these past few weeks is that it turns out smart, effective government is
important. It matters. I think the American people during this
shutdown had a chance to get some idea of all the things, large and small, that
government does that make a difference in people's lives.
We hear
all the time about how government is the problem. Well, it turns out we
rely on it in a whole lot of ways. Not only does it keep us strong
through our military and our law enforcement, it plays a vital role in caring
for our seniors and our veterans, educating our kids, making sure our workers
are trained for the jobs that are being created, arming our businesses with the
best science and technology so they can compete with companies from other
countries. It plays a key role in keeping our food and our toys and our
workplaces safe. It helps folks rebuild after a storm. It conserves
our natural resources. It finances startups. It helps to sell our
products overseas. It provides security to our diplomats abroad.
So let's
work together to make government work better, instead of treating it like an
enemy or purposely making it work worse. That’s not what the founders of
this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self-government. You
don’t like a particular policy or a particular president, then argue for your
position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it. But
don’t break it. Don’t break what our predecessors spent over two
centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country is
about.
And that
brings me to one last point. I’ve got a simple message for all the
dedicated and patriotic federal workers who’ve either worked without pay or
been forced off the job without pay these past few weeks, including most of my
own staff: Thank you. Thanks for your service. Welcome back.
What you do is important. It matters.
You defend
our country overseas. You deliver benefits to our troops who’ve earned
them when they come home. You guard our borders. You protect our
civil rights. You help businesses grow and gain footholds in overseas
markets. You protect the air we breathe and the water our children
drink. And you push the boundaries of science and space, and you guide
hundreds of thousands of people each day through the glories of this country.
Thank you. What you do is important. And don't let anybody else
tell you different. Especially the young people who come to this city to
serve — believe that it matters. Well, you know what, you’re right.
It does.
And those
of us who have the privilege to serve this country have an obligation to do our
job as best we can. We come from different parties, but we are Americans
first. And that’s why disagreement cannot mean dysfunction. It
can't degenerate into hatred. The American people’s hopes and dreams are
what matters, not ours. Our obligations are to them. Our regard for
them compels us all, Democrats and Republicans, to cooperate, and compromise,
and act in the best interests of our nation –- one nation, under God,
indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Thanks
very much.
