{"id":4530,"date":"2012-07-31T14:05:47","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T18:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/?p=4530"},"modified":"2012-07-31T15:06:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-31T19:06:37","slug":"babbling-in-the-mirror-obama-supporter-interviews-future-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2012\/07\/babbling-in-the-mirror-obama-supporter-interviews-future-self.html","title":{"rendered":"Babbling in the Mirror &#8211; Obama Supporter Interviews Future Self"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I received a link to a <a title=\"Obama Supporter Interviews Her 2008 Self\" href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/WbX5EwSp_W8\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube video<\/a> today. The video is a mock up of someone from 2008 interviewing their current selves and dealing with all the crushing disappointments of the Obama Administration.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WbX5EwSp_W8\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/center>The link came with a request:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;Please, please, somebody tell me where she is wrong. I really want to know!&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ll try to suspend my skepticism that anyone circulating this sort of propaganda is truly interested in facts, or even willing to accept them, but I&#8217;m up for the challenge anyway.<\/p>\n<p>The video contains a scarcity of actual data, but there are a lot of general claims.\u00a0 A few are fairly accurate, many are directionally incorrect, and a few are outright false. In the opening, the 2008 woman is going on about the utopia that would surely result from 4 years under Obama.\u00a0 Granted, there was a lot of optimism from his supporters upon his election, but anyone who believes any President can effect a utopian transformation of the country is delusional. If you think it can be done in the midst of the second largest economic downfall in the last century, you&#8217;re just plain nuts.\u00a0 It&#8217;s unfair to compare Obama to some vision of Nirvana. Rather, the accurate comparison is to the alternative, a McCain administration. Unfortunately, we&#8217;ll never know what that might have been. Maybe it would be better, maybe worse, but we can be pretty sure, based on the previous 30 years of mostly Republican administrations, that it wouldn&#8217;t quite be utopia.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/WbX5EwSp_W8\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4531\" title=\"Obama Supporter - Self Interview\" src=\"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Obama-Supporter-Self-Interview-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Obama Supporter - Self Interview\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Obama-Supporter-Self-Interview-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Obama-Supporter-Self-Interview.jpg 471w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The initial substantive claim is that <strong>the 2012 woman&#8217;s father died because his asthma medication was outlawed<\/strong>. This is flat out false.\u00a0 No asthma medications have been outlawed.\u00a0 Starting this year, CFC based inhalers were banned. Keep in mind that CFC propellants have been banned since the 70s in everything else in an effort to save the ozone layer. Civilization survived. Further, <a title=\"Switch from CFC inhalers now\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pharmacist.com\/AM\/Template.cfm?Template=\/CM\/ContentDisplay.cfm&amp;ContentID=16419\" target=\"_blank\">HFA inhalers are available<\/a> as an alternative. Same medication, same dose, different delivery mechanism.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next is a general lament about high unemployment.<\/strong> There&#8217;s no doubt that unemployment remains unacceptably high. However, <a title=\"THE CHART: Public Sector Vs. Private Sector Employment\" href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/the-chart-public-sector-vs-private-sector-employment-2012-6\" target=\"_blank\">looking at the data<\/a>, private sector employment bottomed out in early 2010 and continues to climb steadily upward.\u00a0 But public sector employment is plummeting at a rate the private sector in a minimally expanding economy can&#8217;t ameliorate. <a title=\"Public and Private Sector Payroll Jobs: Bush and Obama\" href=\"http:\/\/www.calculatedriskblog.com\/2012\/03\/public-and-private-sector-payroll-jobs.html\" target=\"_blank\">Look at a comparison<\/a> of Bush&#8217;s first term compared to Obama&#8217;s. Bush responded to the economic downturn in 2000 with stimulus by expanding government payroll.\u00a0 Obama responded by slashing government jobs in favor of private sector stimulus. Hmmm&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>But Obama had a super-majority!<\/strong> Why didn&#8217;t he fix everything? Obama&#8217;s super-majority in Congress hinged on one man, Ted Kennedy. A man who had the gall to be suffering terminal brain cancer upon Obama&#8217;s election, and who died in August of that first year.\u00a0 Kennedy made special and heroic returns to the Senate floor to cast votes on the stimulus and on Obamacare, but otherwise was incapacitated. After his death, Scott Brown was elected and the Obama super-majority vanished.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oh, the executive orders!<\/strong> There&#8217;s no specific complaint over any specific executive orders, but the implication is that Obama is issuing them all over the place.\u00a0 The data from the <a title=\"Executive Orders Disposition Tables Index\" href=\"http:\/\/www.archives.gov\/federal-register\/executive-orders\/disposition.html\" target=\"_blank\">National Archives<\/a> would disagree. Obama has issued 129 EOs so far.\u00a0 Pro-rating that for his entire first term puts him on pace to issue 147 by January.\u00a0 G.W. Bush averaged 145\/term. Clinton averaged 181, Bush Sr. did 165, and Reagan comes in at 190.\u00a0 So Obama&#8217;s on the low end of recent history.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why didn&#8217;t the stimulus fix everything as promised?<\/strong> First, we have to accept the 2008 woman somehow magically knowing about the 2009 stimulus package, but I&#8217;m nit-picking. Most stimulus proponents now agree <a title=\"Summers: Why the Stimulus Package Was Too Small\" href=\"http:\/\/economistsview.typepad.com\/economistsview\/2011\/07\/summers-why-the-stimulus-package-was-too-small.html\" target=\"_blank\">the stimulus package was not up to the task<\/a>. The enormity of the economic hole was much larger than anticipated and the level of stimulus was insufficient to achieve the desired results.\u00a0 However, it probably was the largest package that would have been politically do-able.\u00a0 But even then, did it have a positive effect? There is arguably legitimate debate here, although the <a title=\"Did the stimulus work? A review of the nine best studies on the subject \" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/ezra-klein\/post\/did-the-stimulus-work-a-review-of-the-nine-best-studies-on-the-subject\/2011\/08\/16\/gIQAThbibJ_blog.html\" target=\"_blank\">consensus is that the stimulus did improve things<\/a>. But even if it didn&#8217;t, there&#8217;s no one claiming it did any harm excepting a brief blip in the debt curve.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next up is the assertion that all of Obama&#8217;s investments in green energy have gone bankrupt.<\/strong> One company, Solyndra, went bankrupt.\u00a0 That&#8217;s not quite all.\u00a0 There&#8217;s ample <a title=\"Assessing the Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program\" href=\"http:\/\/mercatus.org\/publication\/assessing-department-energy-loan-guarantee-program\" target=\"_blank\">room for debate<\/a> on whether the government should be subsidizing commercial energy companies, but the fact remains that the vast majority of the loans have not defaulted. Further, the $535M Solyndra debacle is a relative drop in the $34B DOE loan bucket. So minimally, this claim is blowing things out of proportion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There&#8217;s a healthcare mandate, she says with a voice dripping in desperation.<\/strong> Yes there is. And unless we&#8217;re content with 30-50 million Americans going without medical care or getting it by indirectly increasing the costs of those of us who do get it, <a title=\"Healthcare reform needs everyone in the pool\" href=\"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2010\/12\/healthcare-reform-needs-everyone-in-the-pool.html\" target=\"_blank\">there should be<\/a>.\u00a0 Even Mitt Romney (the unwitting father of Obamacare), was recently praising the Israeli heathcare system as being cost effective\u2014apparently <a title=\"Romney praises health care in Israel, where research says \u2018strong government influence\u2019 has driven down costs\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/ezra-klein\/wp\/2012\/07\/30\/romney-praises-health-care-in-israel-where-strong-government-influence-has-driven-down-costs\/\" target=\"_blank\">unaware that it achieves those results<\/a> through government controlled universal coverage. If there&#8217;s a workable alternative solution, someone should put it on the table.\u00a0 <a title=\"The budget problems are all healthcare related\" href=\"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2011\/07\/the-budget-problems-are-all-healthcare-related.html\" target=\"_blank\">Otherwise<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>There&#8217;s a middle class tax hike, she says.<\/strong>\u00a0 <a title=\"Report: Tax Rates Under Obama Lower Than Any President in Modern History\" href=\"http:\/\/www.classwarfareexists.com\/report-tax-rates-under-obama-lower-than-any-president-in-modern-history\/\" target=\"_blank\">No, there isn&#8217;t<\/a>. Taxes are at historic lows.\u00a0 That is, unless you count the Obamacare individual mandate as a tax increase, in which case they are still at historic lows.\u00a0 But viewing the mandate as a tax increase is a <a title=\"The Real Obamacare \u201cTax\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2012\/06\/the-real-obamacare-tax.html\" target=\"_blank\">spurious argument<\/a> that also requires you to acknowledge the effective tax cut the rest of get for not having to pay for the care of those without insurance through our insurance rates, paycheck deductions, and co-pays.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Obama promised transparency!<\/strong> Yes, he did. And the <a title=\"The Obama Administration's Abject Failure on Transparency\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2012\/02\/the-obama-administrations-abject-failure-on-transparency\/252387\/\" target=\"_blank\">record so far is abysmal<\/a> by pretty much any measure. Transparency seems to decrease year after year regardless of who&#8217;s in office.\u00a0 This may be a result of the 24&#215;7 instant news culture we live in.\u00a0 Be that as it may, this is still our government and we have a right to know what&#8217;s going on in there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are loads of lobbyists in the Administration.<\/strong> <a title=\"Lobbying continues at the Obama White House, visitor logs show\" href=\"http:\/\/openchannel.nbcnews.com\/_news\/2012\/05\/21\/11790805-lobbying-continues-at-the-obama-white-house-visitor-logs-show?lite\" target=\"_blank\">Yes, there are<\/a>, and Obama promised there wouldn&#8217;t be.\u00a0 This is more than a little disappointing. It may be the reality of modern government. It may be that other administrations have done much the same thing, but that doesn&#8217;t change the fact that this is a fundamental campaign promise on which Obama has failed badly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>African American suffer the highest unemployment rates.<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, yes. But <a title=\"Unemployment rates by race and ethnicity, 2010\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/opub\/ted\/2011\/ted_20111005.htm\" target=\"_blank\">historically that&#8217;s always been true<\/a>. That doesn&#8217;t make it a good thing, but it&#8217;s hardly a remarkable thing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Internationally we&#8217;ve never been more hated.<\/strong> This is simply <a title=\"Global Views of United States Improve While Other Countries Decline\" href=\"http:\/\/www.worldpublicopinion.org\/pipa\/articles\/views_on_countriesregions_bt\/660.php\/\" target=\"_blank\">pants-on-fire false<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But I thought the Muslim world would follow our lead to democracy?<\/strong> Well, yes and no. The <a title=\"Arab Spring\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Arab_Spring\" target=\"_blank\">Arab Spring<\/a> has certainly been a profound and recent movement toward democracy in much of the Muslim world. However, in many cases it has resulted in the democratic election of parties and leaders that are not so very friendly toward the USA. The unfortunate reality of letting people choose is that you may not like their choices.\u00a0 Nonetheless, to say they followed our path is a little ludicrous. Further, Obama didn&#8217;t promise to bring democracy to the world. That was <a title=\"Bush pledges to spread democracy\" href=\"http:\/\/articles.cnn.com\/2005-01-20\/politics\/bush.speech_1_ideologies-that-feed-hatred-bush-pledges-human-freedom?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS\" target=\"_blank\">G.W. Bush<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instead, we&#8217;re following Europe&#8217;s lead into debt.<\/strong>\u00a0 Yes and no, but mostly no. First, we aren&#8217;t following Europe. We aren&#8217;t racking up debt because they are or because we view them as some sort of economic mentor. Second, <a title=\"European public debt at a glance\" href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2011\/BUSINESS\/06\/19\/europe.debt.explainer\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">not all of Europe is debt ridden<\/a>. Greece, Italy, and Spain are at particular risk. This crises was created because of the European Economic Union, which joins all the countries&#8217; currencies without linking their economies. This is not the situation in the USA. we are <a title=\"The U.S. Is Not Going The Way Of Europe\" href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/2010\/05\/02\/federal-government-entrepreneurs-europe-opinions-columnists-john-tamny.html\" target=\"_blank\">not going the way of Europe<\/a>. We may still get sucked down by them, but that&#8217;s not a function of debt, just a reality of global economies.\u00a0 Yes, the debt in the US is unsustainable. However, current debt levels are <a title=\"Obama spending binge never happened\" href=\"http:\/\/articles.marketwatch.com\/2012-05-22\/commentary\/31802270_1_spending-federal-budget-drunken-sailor\" target=\"_blank\">not a result of runaway spending<\/a>. Spending increases are growing slower than at any time since the 50s. Instead, what we have is an unprecedented <a title=\"It\u2019s the Revenue, Stupid\" href=\"http:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2011\/04\/its-the-revenue-stupid.html\" target=\"_blank\">loss of revenue<\/a> as a result of tax cuts, high unemployment, and a sluggish economy. Further, the US government is currently considered the most stable financial bet on the planet. At present, the Treasury is able to <a title=\"Treasury Sells Inflation Notes at Record Low Negative Yield\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2012-05-17\/treasury-sells-inflation-notes-at-record-low-negative-yield.html\" target=\"_blank\">sell debt at negative yields<\/a>. That means people are paying the US government to keep their money safe. This is beyond free money.\u00a0 Yes, we can&#8217;t rack up debt forever. When the economy recovers, we absolutely need to pay it down rather than giving ourselves tax cuts like we did in 2001. But there is no evidence that debt is an emergent risk to our economy.<\/p>\n<p><em>I recognize this has been long, and I&#8217;m flattered if you muddled through to the end. If you have any energy left, I strongly encourage you to click through and read the reference material, or dig up your own. But please, dig up facts and not emotional appeals and sound bites. The video is a cute concept, but it is a message largely without substance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The video contains a scarcity of actual data, but there are general claims. A few are accurate, many are directionally incorrect, and a few are outright false.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,21,40,23,159,41,15],"class_list":["post-4530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-congress","tag-conservatives","tag-gop","tag-obama","tag-propaganda","tag-republicans","tag-tea-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4530"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4545,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530\/revisions\/4545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}