If You’re Obama, “Now” Is Always the Best Time to Destroy Jobs

September 26, 2011

President Obama’s Calls to Pass Stimulus 2.0 “Now” Bring Reminders of Failed Policies

President Obama sounds like a broken record these days, demanding dozens of times that Congress pass his second stimulus spending spree and pass it “now.”
But two-and-a-half years into office, the president’s record with bills he’s rushed into law is abysmal: a failed stimulus and a job-destroying government healthcare takeover. And his White House notoriously attempted to rush through the approval of a $535 million loan of taxpayer money to now-bankrupt Solyndra.
After so much failure, Americans are done with Obama’s excuses and are rightfully starting to hold him responsible. Meanwhile, Obama continues to offer more of the same job-destroying tax increases to accompany more failed stimulus.

BACKGROUND

President Obama sounds like a broken record these days, demanding dozens of times that Congress pass his second stimulus and do so “now”:

SEP. 22 OBAMA STIMULUS RALLY IN OHIO: CALLS ON CONGRESS TO “PASS THIS BILL” 18 TIMES:(“Remarks by the President on the American Jobs Act – Cincinnati, OH,” The White House, 9/22/2011)

OBAMA, SEP. 14: “IF YOU LOVE ME, YOU’VE GOT TO HELP ME PASS THIS BILL!”: (Mary Bruce, “Obama in N.C.: ‘If You Love Me, You’ve Got to Help Me Pass this Bill,’” ABC News, 9/14/2011)

SEP. 12: OBAMA CALLS TO PASS NEW STIMULUS 13 TIMES. (“Remarks by the President on the American Jobs Act,” The White House, 9/12/2011)

SEP. 9, OBAMA: “PASS THIS BILL NOW”: (“Remarks by the President on the American Jobs Act,” The White House, 9/9/2011)

OBAMA CALLED ON CONGRESS TO “PASS THIS BILL” 19 TIMES IN THAT SPEECH. (“Remarks by the President on the American Jobs Act,” The White House, 9/9/2011)

IN SEP. 8 STIMULUS SPEECH BEFORE CONGRESS, OBAMA SAYS “PASS THIS BILL” 14 TIMES. (Dan Farber, “Obama’s Message: ‘Pass This Jobs Bill,’ CBS News, 9/8/2011)

Two-and-a-half years into office, the president’s record with bills he’s rushed into law is rather abysmal: a failed stimulus and a job-destroying government healthcare takeover. And his White House notoriously attempted to rush through the approval of a $535 million loan of taxpayer money to now-bankrupt Solyndra:

OBAMA DEMANDED THAT CONGRESS PASS HIS GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER “RIGHT NOW”:

SEP. 17, 2009: OBAMA SAID “NOW IS THE TIME TO DELIVER ON HEALTHCARE REFORM”: “Not this time. Not now. The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is the time to deliver on health care reform for the American people.” (Remarks by the President at Rally on Health Insurance Reform,” The White House, 9/17/2009)

SEP. 26, 2009: JOE BIDEN: “THE TIME IS NOW” FOR GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER: “Folks, the problem is real. The need for reform is acute, and the time is now.” (“Remarks by the Vice President to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners,” The White House, 9/22/2009)

SEP 27, 2009: OBAMA: WE MUST “REMEMBER THE FIERCE URGENCY OF RIGHT NOW”: “We cannot wait any longer. There comes a time to remember the fierce urgency of right now. Now is the time to enact health insurance reform in the United States of America. Now is the time to offer stability and security to Americans who have insurance. Now is the time to make it affordable for those who don’t have health insurance. Now is the time to slow the growth of health care costs for our families, and business, our government. That’s the kind of reform that we need. Now is the time.” (“Remarks by the President at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner,” The White House, 9/27/2009)

MARCH 3, 2010: OBAMA: “[Obama] also made clear his impatience with the process. ‘Every idea has been put on the table. Every argument has been made. Everything there is to say about health care has been said and just about everyone has said it.’” (Carrie Budoff Brown and Carol E. Lee, “President Obama: ‘Now is the Time to Make a Decision’,” Politico, 3/4/2010)

MORE: “Now is the time to make a decision about how to finally reform health care so that it works, not just for the insurance companies, but for America’s families and businesses,” Obama said at the White House, kicking off what he promised would be a full-on campaign to pass reform.” (Carrie Budoff Brown and Carol E. Lee, “President Obama: ‘Now is the Time to Make a Decision’,” Politico, 3/4/2010)

OBAMA ALSO DEMANDED THAT CONGRESS PASS HIS STIMULUS RIGHT AWAY:

FEB. 5, 2009: OBAMA DEMANDS CONGRESS “MOVE SWIFTLY” TO SIGN STIMULUS “INTO LAW”: “If we do not move swiftly to sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, an economy that is already in crisis will be faced with catastrophe.” (“Obama at House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference,”The White House, 2/5/2009)

FEB. 6, 2009: OBAMA WARNS CONGRESS NOT TO “DRAG [ITS] FEET AND FAIL TO ACT”: “And if we drag our feet and fail to act, this crisis will turn into a catastrophe. We’ll continue to get devastating job reports like today’s – month after month, year after year.” (The White House, 2/6/2009)

OBAMA SAID “IT IS TIME FOR CONGRESS TO ACT” AND PASS STIMULUS: ”I am sure that at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, members of the Senate are reading these same numbers this morning. I hope they share my sense of urgency and draw the same, unmistakable conclusion: the situation could not be more serious. These numbers demand action. It is inexcusable and irresponsible to get bogged down in distraction and delay while millions of Americans are being put out of work. It is time for Congress to act. It is time to pass an Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to get our economy moving again.” (The White House, 2/6/2009)

FEB. 9, 2009: “NOW IT’S TIME TO ACT” AND PASS STIMULUS: “… [P]residentBarack Obama declared Monday that quick and massive government action is vital to repair ‘a gaping hole in our economy’ that could lead to a long-term catastrophe. ‘We’ve had a good debate. Now it’s time to act,’ Obama said Monday night in his first full-scale news conference since entering the White House. Americans ‘need help right now,’ he said, ‘and they can’t afford to keep on waiting for folks in Washington to get this done.’” (Christi Parsons, “Obama: ‘It’s Time to Act;’ In Blunt Terms President Urges Stimulus Passage,” The Chicago Tribune, 2/9/2009)

FEB. 10, 2009: “THE TIME FOR TALK IS OVER.” “So we’ve had a good debate, we’ve had a good debate. That’s part of what democracy is all about. But the time for talk is over.” (The White House, 2/10/2009)

FEB. 11, 2009, JOE BIDEN: “WE NEED TO ACT, AND WE NEED TO ACT NOW. AND I HOPE WE’RE GOING TO ACT TODAY”: “I don’t think anyone looking at what’s going on in the economy can have any doubt about the depth of the problem we’re facing. We’re long past that debate. We had that debate in October, November, January — we’re way beyond that debate. Just last month, in one month we lost 600,000 jobs in America. And all the evidence is that job loss is accelerating — accelerating, not decreasing, not slowing down. So we need to act, and we need to act now. And I hope we’re going to act today.” (The White House, 2/11/2009)

SOLYNDRA APPROVAL WAS IN QUITE A HURRY TOO, AND LOOK AT HOW THAT TURNED OUT:

E-MAILS SHOW WHITE HOUSE TRIED “TO RUSH FEDERAL OFFICIALS” TO ISSUE SOLYNDRA LOAN:(Tim Mak, “Report: White House Pushed on Solyndra,” Politico, 9/14/2011)

OMB TO WHITE HOUSE, MARCH 2009: “THIS DEAL IS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME”: (Phillip Klein, “OMB Had Warned Solyndra ‘NOT Ready for Prime Time,’” The Washington Examiner, 9/14/2011)

OMB STAFFER CALLED OUT WHITE HOUSE: “WE WOULD PREFER TO HAVE SUFFICIENT TIME TO DO DUE DILIGENCE REVIEWS AND HAVE THE APPROVAL SET THE DATE FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT RATHER THAN THE OTHER WAY AROUND”: (Ryan Tracy, “House Probes Solyndra Loan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/14/2011)

OMB STAFF WORRIED THAT “GIVEN TIME PRESSURE WE ARE UNDER TO SIGN-OFF ON SOLYNDRA,” NO TIME FOR THOROUGH RISK ASSESSMENT: (Tim Mak, “Report: White House Pushed on Solyndra,” Politico, 9/14/2011)

OMB TOLD WHITE HOUSE: WE “WOULD PREFER THAT THIS ANNOUNCEMENT BY POSTPONED”:(Tim Mak, “Report: White House Pushed on Solyndra,” Politico, 9/14/2011)

SOLYNDRA REVIEW TOOK ONLY 9 DAYS; AVERAGE WAS 28 DAYS: (Ryan Tracy, “House Probes Solyndra Loan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/14/2011)

After so much failure, Americans are done with Obama’s excuses and are rightfully starting to hold him responsible. Meanwhile, Obama continues to offer more of the same job-destroying tax increases to accompany more failed stimulus:

GALLUP/USA TODAY POLL: 80% SAY U.S. IN RECESSION, 60% SAY ECONOMY WILL BE SAME OR WORSE IN A YEAR AND A MAJORITY BLAME OBAMA: “Twenty-four percent say Obama deserves a great deal of the blame, up 10 points since 2009. For the first time since he took office, a majority of Americans — including six in 10 independents — say he deserves a great deal or moderate amount of blame for the nation’s economic woes.” (Susan Page, “Poll: Economic Pessimism Deepens, and More Blame Obama,”USA Today, 9/21/2011)

“OBAMA VOWS VETO IF DEFICIT PLAN HAS NO TAX INCREASES”: “President Obama called on Monday for Congress to adopt his ‘balanced’ plan combining entitlement cuts, tax increases and war savings to reduce the federal deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years, and said he would veto any approach that relied solely on spending reductions to address the fiscal shortfall.

“ ‘I will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans,’ he said.” (Helene Cooper, “Obama Vows Veto if Deficit Plan Has No Tax Increases,” The New York Times, 9/19/2011)

THE PRICETAG? $1.5 TRILLION. (Helene Cooper, “Obama Vows Veto if Deficit Plan Has No Tax Increases,” The New York Times, 9/19/2011)

RIGHT AFTER OBAMA OFFERED $467 BILLION IN TAX INCREASES TO PAY FOR STIMULUS 2.0: “The Obama administration is asking Congress to raise taxes by $467 billion over 10 years to pay for the President’s one-year $447 billion stimulus, which he announced during a speech Thursday before a joint session of Congress.” (Neil Munro, “Obama Asks Congress for $467-Billion Tax Increase to Fund Jobs Plan,” The Daily Caller, 9/12/2011)