Limbaugh calls Obama 'immature, inexperienced' - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge · 11-01-2009, 06:59 PM

Limbaugh calls Obama 'immature, inexperienced'
By Steven R. Hurst, Associated Press Writer
Sun Nov 1, 2:45 pm ET

WASHINGTON – From his home and on a friendly network, Rush Limbaugh lobbed pot shots across the airwaves Sunday at President Barack Obama — "immature, inexperienced, in over his head," offering the country "radical leadership" and laying siege to the economy.

"We'll let Mr. Limbaugh foment," responded the White House's chief political strategist, dismissing the conservative commentator with the reported $400 million contract ("I'm probably worth more," Limbaugh said) as no more than an entertainer and not really the right guy to give "lectures on humility."

The banter began on the hourlong "Fox News Sunday," Limbaugh the lone guest, interviewed from his home in Palm Beach, Fla., on a network the Obama administration has labeled as the voice of the far-right wing of the Republican Party. Obama adviser David Axelrod swung away later in the morning from Chicago on CBS' "Face the Nation."

One question in, Limbaugh said that his country had "never seen this kind of radical leadership at such a high level of power," that "I have to think" the administration is bent on destroying the private sector on purpose, amounting to "a denial of liberty, an attack on freedom."

He said Obama's swift rise to the White House after "a five-minute career" makes him a "man-child president."

"I think he's got an out-of-this-world ego. He's very narcissistic. And he's able to focus all attention on him all the time. That description is simply a way to cut through the noise and say he's immature, inexperienced, in over his head," Limbaugh said.

Axelrod, one of two guests on the 30-minute CBS broadcast, weighed in with cutting comments of his own.

"I think it's a surreal day when you're getting lectures on humility from Rush Limbaugh. ... The fact is that he is an entertainer. The president has to run the country," Axelrod said.

"We walked into a difficult situation. I think he's handling it very, very well. And most people believe that," he added.

Limbaugh belittled Obama's surprise, middle-of-the-night trip last week to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to observe the return of 18 flag-covered cases holding the remains of Americans killed in Afghanistan. "It was a photo op" designed to "create the impression that he has all of this great concern," he contended.

Axelrod said Obama went to Dover "to represent the American people and pay his respects to the families who had made so much of a sacrifice, to those brave service people who made the ultimate sacrifice. It was the appropriate thing to do, and I think most Americans appreciate that."

As Limbaugh predicted that a second Obama term "would be painful," Axelrod got the final word: "There's no surprise that Rush Limbaugh espouses the views that he espouses. He does it every day on radio. He's marketing the outrageous. And he does very well with it. But as I said he's an entertainer. We've got bigger responsibilities."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091101/...1iYXVnaGNhbGw-

Jolie Rouge · 11-02-2009, 08:48 AM

Doubts greet Obama's financial oversight plan
OBAMA REFORMS FACE BATTLE
Lawmakers question proper role of agencies
By Brady Dennis and David Cho - Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009

The Obama administration on Thursday ran into skepticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as well as a key regulator, as it pushed for broad new powers to monitor risks throughout the financial system and to wind down large, troubled financial firms whose failure could endanger the economy.

The criticisms included how the proposals would be funded, whether the Federal Reserve stood to gain too much influence and if the government would end up with the ability to continually bail out big financial firms without congressional approval.

The divisions arose as Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner headed to Capitol Hill seeking to convince lawmakers that the proposed expansion of government authority is vital to remedy the root causes of last fall's financial crisis. "The current rules in place for our financial system are inadequate and outdated," Geithner told members of the House Financial Services Committee. "We have all experienced what happens when, during a crisis, the government is left with limited tools and limited choices. That is the searing lesson of last fall."

Under legislation unveiled this week by the committee chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), in close coordination with the Obama administration, an oversight council of regulators would act as a monitor of systemic risk throughout the financial system and impose tougher regulatory standards on the largest companies. Compared to an earlier draft put forward by President Obama's team, the current bill expands the role of the council, entrusting it to identify risks to the system. The Fed would be the enforcer of the council's recommendations.

But that structure came under fire from Sheila C. Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., who argued the new council should be headed by an independent chairman rather than by the Treasury secretary, and that the council should have greater authority.

Bair also joined both Republican and Democratic lawmakers in questioning the government's plan to pay for the cost of winding down large, failing financial firms. The plan calls for companies with more than $10 billion in assets to be assessed fees only after a large collapse, rather than contributing ahead of time into an insurance-like fund. Geithner and Frank have said the intent is to shift the burden of such failures from taxpayers to the financial industry itself, but Bair argued for the insurance approach. "We believe a pre-funded reserve has significant advantages," Bair, testifying after Geithner, told lawmakers Thursday. "All large firms, not just the survivors, would pay risk-based assessments into the fund. This approach would also avoid assessing firms in a crisis."

Geithner's defense

Geithner defended the plan against charges that the current proposals would give too much power to the executive branch and could create a perpetual version of the $700 billion bailout fund, known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) referred to parts of the current bill as "TARP on steroids." Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) said the proposals "will actually institutionalize 'too big to fail.' "

"It does not create permanent TARP authority," Geithner responded. "And it does not give the government broad discretion to step in and rescue insolvent firms."

Geithner said bankruptcy would remain the primary tool for most failing institutions. He said the new legislation would create authority similar to what the FDIC currently has to seize faltering commercial banks. In addition, he said it is critical that regulators be able to impose "strong constraints on risk-taking and leverage" on companies to "limit dramatically any expectation of government support."

No regulator would gain more out of the proposed legislation than the Federal Reserve, which endorsed the bill, with Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo saying it "provides a strong framework for achieving a safer, more stable financial system."

Under the current draft, if the central bank sees a problem industry-wide or at a particular firm, it could direct other federal regulators to take action. If that regulator refused, the Fed could take the action itself. The Fed also would have the authority to regulate thrift holding companies and, in limited cases, to force ailing companies into bankruptcy. Moreover, the central bank would be given a seat on the FDIC. The Fed, however, would need Treasury approval to extend emergency loans such as the ones it used to rescue Bear Stearns and American International Group.

Greenspan doubtful

A growing chorus of prominent economists have raised questions recently over whether the Fed, or any government regulator, could adequately judge which risks pose a threat to the system.

Former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan said in an interview that the administration's proposal "presumes government officials can accurately forecast risks to the system better than the markets." Over his nearly 19 years at the central bank, Greenspan said he learned that, as a regulator, "you only dimly see the future." When problems arise in plain view, the markets almost immediately correct the issue, he said.

Greenspan agreed with the administration's proposals to increase bank capital, which ensures these firms will have more of a buffer in a downturn, and to grant the federal officials the authority to seize and break up failing financial firms. But the plan to set up government agencies to hunt for threats to the entire system will "create a problem of a bias toward regulatory solutions, and risks that we allow political judgments rather than economic judgments to prevail," he said.

Others, meanwhile, have pushed for more direct solutions to deal with banks that have become too big to fail. Obama's top outside economic adviser, Paul Volcker, also a former Fed chair, has promoted restoring a modern version of the law that once kept commercial banking and investment operations separate. The idea has been endorsed by no less than John Reed, a former Citigroup chairman, who was among those who led the charge to break down that division in the late 1990s.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102904687.html

Do we realy want someone who couldn't figure out TurboTax to be in control of the nations banking systems ?

Jolie Rouge · 11-03-2009, 01:02 PM

Quote:

View Poll Results: Limbaugh calls Obama 'immature, inexperienced'

I agree with this statement 8 - 66.67%

I do not agree with this statement 0 - 0%

I would not agree with Rush if he stated "Gravity Works" 4 - 33.33%

Voters: 12.

What is interesting about the results of this poll thus far is that not one person has voted that they disagree with the statement "Obama is 'immature, inexperienced' - only that they would disagree with ANYTHING Rush would say. Which begs the question - do those people AGREE with the above statement and just don't want to say ?

Also, it seems that Liberals always like to say that Conservatives are narrowminded and intolerant ... and yet here they would disagree with whatever is stated by a certain political entertainer ... not based on the message but on the messenger. Like my Grandmother use to say "even a broken clock is right twice a day" ....

Jolie Rouge · 11-04-2009, 12:24 AM

seems that one person had to prove me wrong , as the only vote thus far in the "disagrees" option was not posted until several hours after the message posted above...