President Obama Defends His Economic Policies at Town-hall Meeting

YouTube - Woman at Town Hall Meeting Tired of Defending President Obama

President Barack Obama was in a town-hall style meeting sponsored by CNBC, the financial news network. President Obama spent an hour answering questions from plaintive audience members at a Newseum studio who bemoaned a loss of hope and the direction being taken by his administration.  He urged the nation Monday to stick with his policies as the economy tends to mend and challenged the Tea Party movement to offer solutions instead of just training its opposition on his administration. 

One of the comments President Obama used to defend the present state of the U.S. economy was the poor economic conditions that existed prior to his taking office.  Many times when traveling across the country, the President cites how things were under his predecessor, George W. Bush.  "The hole was so deep that a lot of people out there are still hurting,"  Obama said.  "So the question then becomes, what can we now put in place to make sure that the trend lines continue in a positive direction, as opposed to going back in the negative direction?"  First of all, we are well aware what happened the last few months of the George W. Bush administration.  We remember the revelation of the mortgage meltdown and the TARP bailout.  Things were in a mess in America.  There's no doubt Obama had inherited a mess.  However, he's not the only president that's inherited messes.  The last several outgoing presidents have handed down problems to the incoming president.  That's nothing new.  I do recognize the scope of the financial mess we're in today is the worst in a few decades.  However, President Obama has been in office for the last eighteen months.  He's continued some of the same policies as his predecessor.  He continued the TARP bailout when he became president last year.  He's still continuing the same military policies in Iraq and Afghanistan that his predecessor began.  President Obama has done nothing but contribute to the mess.  He's just using this as a political ploy because the November election is just 40+ days away.

A woman who said she was the chief financial officer for a veterans' service organization told Obama:  "I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now."  "The financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family...Is this my new reality?"  she asked.  President Obama responded by saying that he wasn't out to convince everybody everything is what it needs to be.  But everything's "headed in the right direction."  There was a man who described himself as a 30-year old law school graduate struggling with student loans asked: "Is the American Dream dead for me?"  Obama replied that it wasn't.  He was defending his efforts to revamp the student-loan program and to offer businesses tax credits to boost research and development.  The president expressed confidence that the American Dream will continue and denied he was anti-business or anti-Wall Street with his plans. 

He offered a mixed verdict on the growing Tea Party movement which expressed skepticism of government.  Obama claimed the challenge for the Tea Party movement would be to state "what they would do?" to help turn around the economy and produce jobs.  "It's not enough just to say, 'Get control of government.'  I think it's important for you to say, 'You know, I'm willing to cut veterans' benefits or (pension) benefits' or I'm willing to see these taxes go up."  Obama claims that the government cannot cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans "and magically think things are going to work out," he said.  I have some news for Obama: raising taxes on the wealthiest isn't going to magically turn our country around economically.  Many Americans who make $250,000 and more own small businesses.  If we raise taxes on those with $250,000 or more, then we're not going to see an increase in job creation, which is what we need to bring this economy around.

President Obama's policies aren't going to lift this wobbling economy.  What will lift up the wobbling economy is for the Bush tax cuts to be extended to everyone; including the wealthy.  That's not the only thing.  Another thing that needs to be done is to repeal Obamacare and any type of needless regulation which will hinder businesses from hiring new employees.  Another thing that needs to be done is our national leaders need to re-negotiate these trade agreements which would place the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.  There was a time in American history when we placed tariffs on foreign goods to protect America's industry.  Today those who advocate terrorists are called "protectionists".  The problem is President Obama and the Democratic Party are socialist-minded and they want to seize control of the private sector.  The direction of our economy is going the way they desire for it go.   That's why it's so important that we vote these incumbent frauds out of Congress this year which includes both Democrats and Republicans.  Our economy will recover if the politicians will keep their hands off the private sector for the most part.