Did the American people vote for Obama so he could do this?
By AnjaP
@Rollo1 (16679)
Boston, Massachusetts
May 28, 2009 8:21am CST
I was thinking today about campaign rhetoric and how it rarely translates into real policy. President Obama has run into particular difficulties in this area, not really having the experience or information to realize that much of what he said he would do can't actually be done.
But I have recently been searching through his campaign website, to see if I could find the promises about taking over the banks and starting to run the car companies and I can't find a thing about it. I see promises like "a detailed plan to get America’s economy back on track, by creating new jobs and easing the burden on hardworking Americans by offering middle-class tax cuts" and his warning that McCain's plan would increase the deficit by 3.4 trillion dollars.
But Obama's budget is 3.6 trillion dollars alone and his spending plans will increase the deficit by 2.3 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office. And all of this without even figuring in all that "free care" that he plans to offer.
My question is: If Obama had told us during his campaign that he planned to take over the banks and the car companies, use his office to fire CEOs and run businesses, while increasing the deficit, would he have been elected?
1 person likes this
9 responses
@oneidmnster (1384)
• United States
28 May 09
Obama is a career politician.All politicians lie to get elected.They tell people what they want to hear.He also said he would tax businesses that made over 250k a year.only an idiot wouldn't know that these businesses got tax breaks so they could keep middle class Americans employed.
I also wish people would stop blaming Bush for all this countries problems.Our problems started long before he took office.Democrats haven't helped.Did Bush help any of these problems?Of course not.But they aren't all his doings.Clinton did his part too.
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
29 May 09
I agree that our problems can't be blamed on any one administration. Right now, it's important that the democrats keep the focus on Bush, even though he isn't president anymore. They need to keep the focus off what they are doing. This obsession they have is a little bizarre. They won and that should make them happy, but instead they are still wailing about the previous administration as if they are still running against them. They just don't want anyone looking too closely at their recent activities.
1 person likes this
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
28 May 09
As the two previous posters I agree that Bush got us into a lot of the trouble. However, Obama has done more to get us deeper in trouble. A president is not a business man. He is not to take over companies or bail out ones that should go bankrupt. Supposedly we all own stock in GM now. Don't hold your breath waiting for that dividend check.
Stop spending, especially on pork, and lower taxes.
2 people like this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
28 May 09
Regardless of what the previous administration did or did not do, Obama is now doing things that were not on his list of proposed policies when he ran for office. This administration has taken on the attitude of a giant corporation itself, plotting hostile takeovers of private businesses. I just wonder how many people had this in mind when they voted for him.
They can keep the dividend check, just send me my company car.
1 person likes this
@spicysweetie21 (2573)
• United States
29 May 09
During his debates and campaign (at least to me) he made it clear that spending certain spending was necessary to then get things back up, he had got a bad screw up to deal with, and so i think that it is awfully soon to really judge Obama and those decisions....there are people out there who are always going to automatically disagree with him though no matter what though
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
29 May 09
And people who disagree with him will go on the Department of homeland Security's watchlist for extremists and terrorists. As an American who was brought up to believe that free speech is guaranteed by the Constitution, that's a problem for me.
1 person likes this
@PrarieStyle (2486)
• United States
29 May 09
People keep saying we should give him time. The problem is, we don't have a lot of time. Plus, look at the damage he's done in just a short time.
He sure didn't take time to think about the decisions he made or take the time to read most of the bills he signed into laws that affect the American people.
1 person likes this
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@MisterPlus (1915)
• Philippines
29 May 09
I was born and raised in the Philippines. I believe that Obama can do good things for America and the rest of the world. He is creating a world of hope for his people and the world. What America need is a total security plan for its people and eventually the world.
1 person likes this
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
31 May 09
You don't say whether you still live in the Philippines or if you are in America now. I think your opinion on the president has to be formed by your experience, mine is as someone who has grown up in America. This is my country and I don't want to see it destroyed.
America has been bringing security to the world for a century, maybe it's time we worried more about our own.
@PrarieStyle (2486)
• United States
29 May 09
Don't look at me, I didn't vote for him. I don't know if he would have been elected if he was honest with the American people. He told us he was going to take from the rich and give to the poor and they still voted for him.
People don't seem to see anything wrong these days with big government and him running the banks and the car companies. They just don't understand how bad big government is. The schools are getting so liberal they aren't teaching our children the truth about our constitution and what a Republic should be.
1 person likes this
@Amythyst (59)
• United States
29 May 09
I don't know--I got a pretty good idea of the constitution from my last history course. I'm just saying it's better than running the risk of being tossed in Guantanamo for disagreeing with wasting the people's money on Iraq when we could have defended ourselves just fine from the United States own shores if we would have more military stationed for defense purposes. Conquering countries is just going to gain us a bad reputation, especially when our own people pay the price for some war that doesn't do us any good anyhow.
If the companies were capable of running themselves, they would have done it right in the first place--the problem with big business is no one actually teaches them how to run it properly and hire qualified and competent candidates instead of "yes men" who sit there and agree with them all the way to bankrupting themselves.
However a better alternative for the government would be to require those being hired for a job to pass a basic job competency test and give people a job placement based on the test so we do get more competency in businesses. (In other words bosses of businesses car mostly about power over people and what they want to be right instead of listening to reasonable solutions from people who know what they're doing).
@Savvynlady (3684)
• United States
29 May 09
Folks, When we elect these folk into office, what they should be doing is trying to see what the country needs, supply it and keep hope alive. Ok. Or a President may come to office and get ate up by the power thing and lose focus. Now, as one of those under employed folks, although I would love a stimulus plan like anybody else in this country, I am also concerned about all this money floating around the country and they keep on printing it; Yes, i have a concern for that because you gotta think down the road. But when we vote for someone, we are not going to agree with everything he puts to the people. although I feel he tried first thing to address the pressing needs of the economy, it still is a cause of concern.
@ddzdvd (361)
• United States
29 May 09
obama our first american idol president,the tiger woods of politics.i think tho that the koolaid is starting to wear off.OneBigAssMistakeAmerica.all hail commrade obama!
i challenge anyone to write down what obama has promised,then write down what he does.i think you will start to see a pattern
@Angeleyez101 (20)
• United States
29 May 09
I agree with hiccup (5729). sorry but President Bush had to see this all coming.unless his head was underground in a golf hole somewhere!(LOL) Our state's economy DID NOT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT!!!! Nor will it be fixed overnight!
I think maybe you should watch--or rewatch Michael Moores "911" then wonder
why is it the Chinese people we are also borrowing from??? Why is it what Obama gives us in one hand certain Governors take away in the other???
President Obama sure walked into a mess and knew only part of it,yet was willing to take it on.
Give him sometime--it's only been a little bit. I was told once "Never count your chickens before they hatch!"
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