Paul Begala: Boehner’s call for White House heads to roll a pretty smart move

Honesty in politics is always refreshing and this will tell you how much trouble the Democrats are in. Last night on CNN, Clintonista and Democrat/White House strategist Paul Begala was asked to respond to Republican House Leader John Boehner’s call for the firing of Obama’s entire economic team (or what’s left of them). I expected spin. It’s not what I got.

If you haven’t heard the Boehner remarks, I’ve included it below the Begala bite. But it’s more than a snart political move, it’s a smart move period. Your best economic minds, all academics by the way, did more than make promises not kept. They provided a Keynesian plan for recovery that has failed miserably, by any measure. Not just because it did not keep unemployment below 8%, and not just because it failed to generate jobs in any meaningful way, both of which are true. (Forget the CBO report. Even the CBO admits their job numbers are not counts but estimates based on jobs per dollar spent.)

No, the reason this crowd should be fired is because the hard numbers show us this spending did not even stop the slide, which of course it could not since in order to sustain it’s push back, the Federal Government must continue to spend which of course it can’t.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7bGTG8N9go

Here then are Congressman John Boehner’s remarks. Be honest now. If this crowd was doing projections for your business or your corporation … wouldn’t you fire them? Only weather forecasters can keep their jobs with a record like this. Ummmm … no offense.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp3nFOvewIs

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Jim Vicevich

Jim is a veteran broadcaster and conservative/libertarian blogger with more than 25 years experience in TV and radio. Jim's was the long-term host of The Jim Vicevich Show on WTIC 1080 in Hartford from 2004 through 2019. Prior to radio, Jim worked as a business and financial reporter for NBC30 - the NBC owned TV station in Hartford - and as business editor at WFSB-TV in Hartford for 14 years while earning six Emmy nominations and three Telly Awards.

18 Comments

  1. chris-os on August 25, 2010 at 3:32 am

    "President Bobama", hee hee-Boehner had a few cocktails, again.



  2. scottm on August 25, 2010 at 4:20 am

    Bonehead conveniently forgets that this mess started before Obama's term and the original stimulus was signed into law by Bush.  He probably spent too much time in the tanning booth and it fried his brain.  The republicans refuse to acknowledge any good economic news and sound the horns at any bad news, purely for political reasons, using the American people as pawns in their efforts to get elected.  When Obama was elected he repeatedly stated that this mess would take a long time to dig out of but the right wing nutjobs  started pointing fingers at him  before he was even sworn in.  Ben Bernanke was appointed by Bush and he has been the man behind the stimulus.  Unemployment has leveled off, when Obama took office we were losing 750,000 jobs a month so maybe we have been headed in the right direction, but it won't happen overnight.



    • Jim Vicevich on August 25, 2010 at 5:09 pm

      No, no, no, no, no. You must stop reading Dem talking points and research for yourself. Period. The $ 870 billion ($1 trillion with interest) was an Obama brain child.Remember? Obama says you must pass the bill or … yada yada.  All his. Period. The TARP is not stimulus (as the dribbler always points out)and President Bush only authorized half, about $350 billion which has been repaid. The other half was left for Obama to distribute at Obama's discretion.

      As for when the recession started, the American people do not care. The Messiah ran on the promise he, and he alone, could fix it and since then all he has done is moan. If you didn't want the job don't take it. This my friend is all him.



    • scottm on August 26, 2010 at 3:21 am

      Jim, when Reagan ran up the deficit to previously unseen numbers and unemployment rose from 7.2 to triple digits were you calling for his head?   He did this despite a time of peace and a banking system that had not recently collapsed.  All this rhetoric from the right every time he makes a move is not helping.  They have criticized everything from his choice of a dog to where he goes on vacation, it's ridiculous.  When the banking system collapsed it scared the hell out of everyone and made them hold onto their money and send the economy further into a tailspin.  Now Republicans are predicting the end of the world if the stock market drops 100 points, when the dow dropped 700 or 1000 during Bush's tenure I didn't hear them say much at all.  This is strictly political, using the Americans as pawns.  I'm curious, why did they let Lehman brothers fail?  I'm not being sarcastic I really would like to know.



    • scottm on August 26, 2010 at 4:57 am

      After I posted the previous post about constant ctiticism from the right about even the smallest things, Vicevich puts out a post about Obama being grumpy with the press while vacationing with his family.  I guess that proves my point.



  3. chris-os on August 25, 2010 at 4:24 am

    Listen to the speech, there is no proposal on what to do about the economy at all, it is just patched together talking points. Why is this news?



  4. TomL on August 25, 2010 at 4:49 am

    I haven't heard any good econmic news.



    • scottm on August 25, 2010 at 6:11 am

      Corporate earnings are soaring, job loss has slowed, productivity is up, the financial system has stabilized, GDP has been expanding for almost a year and the American automobile companies have gained some footing.  Contrary to what Bonehead apparently thinks, there are not a lot of economic experts willing to leave their multi million dollar jobs in the private sector to work for a fraction of that in government positions.



    • Dimsdale on August 25, 2010 at 10:40 am

      I don't think we are experiencing quite the rosy scenario you claim, but I sure hope so.

       

      If no economic expert are willing to leave their muti million dollar jobs, are we left with the dregs?  And isn't that the problem?



    • Jim Vicevich on August 25, 2010 at 5:25 pm

      Corporate earnings are up, and productivity is higher because corporations have spent 18 months cutting to the bone and asking remaining workers to do more for less. It happens in every recession I have covered, no matter what party is in office. But with 500,000 new claims last week it is doubtful we have seen an end to job loss, unfortunate but not surprising.

      A GDP that is increasing on average 2% is not great even in a strong economy. It's anemic. As I pointed out in the last recession my biggest complaint with the right was denial and so it is here. The economy is not a spin game. Its real pain felt by real people. Things are not improving and the anti corporate climate coming out of DC is not helping.



    • Lynn on August 27, 2010 at 3:17 am

      Scott, have you read today's AP "Snapshot of Economy to get a lot Bleaker". I'm tech dumb but, it's news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100827/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy

      "Imports rose by 3% to just over $200 billion in June, while exports fell to $150.5 billion pushing the trade gap to almost $50 billion…." Even I understand that's bad.



  5. David R on August 25, 2010 at 6:09 am

    Wall Streeters are like Muslims: some are terrorists and some aren't. The question in my mind has always been in which camp do these particular individuals fall? As left overs from Bush years it's clear that they aren't political idealogues, but whether or not they have the right amount of objectivity for the job isn't clear. Par for the course would be that they have mixed motives, sometimes acting for the good of the country and sometimes for the good of their corporate buddies.  



    • scottm on August 25, 2010 at 6:12 am

      Well said David.



    • Dimsdale on August 25, 2010 at 10:12 am

      The same could have been said of Clinton leftovers and new people.  The real problem is Congress anyway.  The WH either aids and abets or gets in the way of their antics.



  6. scottm on August 25, 2010 at 7:45 am

    This is a guy who actualy handed out checks from tobacco funds on the house floor before a vote.  Bonehead should be in prison.



    • Dimsdale on August 25, 2010 at 10:41 am

      As should most of them.  For gross incompetence at minimum.



    • Steve M on August 25, 2010 at 10:44 am

      Handing out PAC money checks on the House floor and throughout all congressional office space is common practice for both political parties, and it's perfectly legal. By no means am I condoning it, but if you have an issue with the practice the right thing to do is remove the power from Washington politicians and burocrats.

      You could always pass a law that forbids the congress-critters from handing out these PAC money checks to other members while on the floor, or even in any federal building. That's just the type of feel-good legislation that attacks a symptom (not even effective), not the disease. It would do nothing except move the exchange out to the Mall's grass, or the Farragut West and Capital South Metro stations.



    • scottm on August 26, 2010 at 4:59 am

      It may be legal but it certainly isn't ethical, but they still voted him in.



Paul Begala

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