So, we'll blame Obama not only for the economy here in the U.S., but in the Eurozone, China and almost everywhere else?That's an embarrassingly dumb attempt to spin the argument. i would've thought that you were able to argue better than that, but I guess not.
It's an argument that the choice of President is irrelevant to the health of the domestic economy; instead, the domestic economy is basically determined by the global economy. But . . . what makes you think that "almost everywhere else" is suffering like the U.S.? What's the unemployment rate in Singapore? Vietnam? Norway? Switzerland? South Korea? Even Brazil, for Pete's sakes?
There are always going to be winners and losers during a recession. That doesn't seem like too hard of a concept. Obama's policies have made the U.S. into a loser.
As far as the "bills passed" argument,let's look at some of the 383 public laws passed during the 111th Congress (Jan. 3, 2009-Jan. 11, 2011).
PL 111-1: A joint resolution ensuring that the compensation and other emoluments attached to the office of Secretary of the Interior are those which were in effect on January 1, 2005.
PL 111-2: Lilly Ledbetter Pair Pay Act of 2009, which despite its name has nothing to do with fair pay and everything to do with tolling a statute of limitations.
PL 111-4: DTV Delay Act, delaying the start date of digital television.
PL 111-7: A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2105 East Cook Street in Springfield, Illinois, as the "Colonel John H. Wilson, Jr. Post Office Building".
PL 111-14: A bill to designate the United States courthouse under construction at 327 South Church Street, Rockford, Illinois, as the "Stanley J. Roszkowski United States Courthouse".
PL 111-15: Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act of 2009
PL 111-17: A joint resolution providing for the appointment of David M. Rubenstein as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
PL 111-18: A bill to repeal section 10(f) of Public Law 93-531, commonly known as the "Bennett Freeze".
PL 111-19: Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009
PL 111-20: Protecting Incentives for the Adoption of Children with Special Needs Act of 2009
N.B.: I want to point out exactly what this bill does. Here's its entire wording:
Effective as if included in the enactment of the Omnibus Appro- priations Act, 2009 (Public Law 111–8), title II of division F of such Act is amended under the heading ‘‘CHILDREN AND FAMILIES SERVICES PROGRAMS’’ under the heading ‘‘ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES’’, by striking ‘‘That without regard to the fiscal year limitations set forth in section 473A of the Social Security Act, from the amounts appropriated herein, the Secretary shall pay adoption incentives for fiscal year 2008 in the same manner as such incentives were awarded in fiscal year 2008 for the previous fiscal year: Provided further,’’.
These are just SOME of just the first 20 bills, and they're loaded with fluff. The bills of the 112th Congress were full of fluff as well. So "bill count" is silly. In fact, passing less fluff would be good. But that's not what happened. Instead, not passing bills was used as a way to grow federal spending.
Want proof? Let's look at something important. Say . . . the budget. The 112th Congress never passed a budget bill; although the House passed numerous budget bills, they were filibustered by Democrats in the Senate.
But, under current federal law, that didn't stop spending from taking place. IN fact, it didn't even stop federal spending from growing. Instead, a bill passed years ago provides that any federal department can spend its previous year's budget plus an annual "inflation" escalator amount if Congress doesn't pass a budget.
So, by blocking a budget bill, Democrats were in fact mandating a sizable annual increase in federal spending, more than Republicans would ever have agreed to. Not exactly "do nothing."
But, of course, the whole idea is to hide the spending hikes by pretending that Congress did nothing. Who ever said that Harry Reid was stupid? Not me.