America: Take Note
I've come across some very interesting statistics from a new blog I've started reading, Kramjam Reiterates, by Mark in OC ("OC" being Orange County, a nice area of 3 million people south of LA and where Disneyland is located). He says:
"A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
Remember, it's Congress that makes law not the President."
Which I find very interesting. Although two years is a rather short amount of time, few of the economic problems facing America -and the rest of the world- existed before the Democrats got into power in Congress.
A warning to America: don't be fooled by talk of "change" -often, it's change for the worst.
4 comments:
Well, there's co-relation and there's causation. Fairly obviously, night follows day, but doesn't cause it. What's your evidence that the Democratic-controlled Congress has caused the change in economic circumstances?
And it's a gross simplification to say that "it's Congress that makes the law not the President". The President has a legislative role and massive executive powers for a start.
"Well, there's co-relation and there's causation. Fairly obviously, night follows day, but doesn't cause it. What's your evidence that the Democratic-controlled Congress has caused the change in economic circumstances?"
In my post, I didn't say specifically that the democratic-controlled congress was entirely responsible for the economic downturn. I was just pointing out, by way of another blogger, the interesting correlation in events.
"And it's a gross simplification to say that "it's Congress that makes the law not the President". The President has a legislative role and massive executive powers for a start."
Yes, the President does have a legislative role and executive powers. But it's congress who makes the laws, and the President passes them. Most legislative power rests on the shoulders of Congress.
You imply a causal link by saying that the co-relation is interesting. If there's no causal link it's not interesting at all, it's just one thing happening and then another thing happening.
Through the veto power alone the President has massive sway over the legislation in terms of, not only what laws get passed, but their specific content. It's disingenuous to simply state that "it's Congress that makes the law, not the President".
Anonymous,
The power of veto is a significant one, but at the same time if the President doesn't have the numbers in Congress, just how much of his legislative agenda can he enact?
I tend to agree that 2 years is a little short to draw any concusions without looking at what laws have been enacted in this time, and identifying other influences, potential causes, etc.
Post a Comment