question 2c Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Closing Arguments – Why I Continue to Support Barack Obama, Civil Rights

I just saw a commercial from the Crossroads PAC. Basically, the gist of the commercial was that Obama has really done nothing for us, so why would we need another four years? As I mentioned yesterday, Barack Obama prevented a second Great Depression. The fact that the economy was actually in free fall seems to escape the folks at Crossroads. The fact that Republicans proposed little or nothing that would’ve helped get us out of the free fall is not addressed in the commercial. Tax cuts, the Republican knee-jerk answer to almost any question, would not have gotten us out of the depression. Fixing the deficit by decreasing government spending and cuts to GDP would’ve worsened our economic situation. This is exactly what Herbert Hoover did in 1930 and ’31. It doesn’t work to fix the economy.

Sorry, I got off on a tangent. Back to my original thought – Barack Obama has stood up and strongly supported women and women’s rights. Basically, he has said that women should be able to decide what is best for their bodies. Now, I wish I could say something positive about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. I simply can’t. Mitt Romney has been a supporter of women’s choice in the past. That was back when he was a moderate, reasonable Republican. Those days are long gone. Now, Mitt Romney, who is trying to appeal to the tea party, does not believe that a woman should have the right to abortion – under any circumstances.

Do you remember when Sandra Fluke testified in front of Congress (well, not Congress because Republicans held a “health” forum and not one woman spoke, remember? So Ms. Fluke spoke in front of a Democratic House forum)? That was an opportunity for Rush Limbaugh to personally attack her. What did Mitt Romney do? Did he stand up for Sandra Fluke’s right to express herself? Did he stand up to Rush Limbaugh and and other conservatives who called Sandra Fluke a whore? Instead, it was Barack Obama who personally called her and encouraged her to speak out. The president didn’t have to do that, but this type of action is in his character. It is in his makeup.

For some reason, conservatives have acted as if the Lilly Ledbetter bill was no big deal. On the contrary, the Lilly Ledbetter Act is a big deal. The simple concept of equal pay for equal work seems to be foreign to Republicans. They say that they want to stand up for individuality. Not so much. Equal pay for equal work. Simple concept.

For all these reasons and more I voted for Barack Obama. He has stood up for the civil rights of all Americans.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-11-05T08:54:58-04:00November 4th, 2012|Civil Rights, Elections, Party Politics|Comments Off

Are We Better off Today?

Are we better off today than we were four years ago? Okay, let’s do this. The campaign for the president of the United States officially starts now. I hate progressives being wishy-washy. It is time for us to step up. Paul Ryan threw a simple 70 mile an hour pitch right down the center of the plate only to have several progressives foul it off. Dammit. We’ve got to do better. This was easy. Paul Ryan asked whether we are better off now than we were four years ago. This is a no-brainer.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

First let’s look at the deficit which the GOP likes to talk about all of the time. Who has piled up the debt?

It is the Republicans who have burdened us with debt. Trillions of dollars of Republican debt. Let me just underline what the above graph tells us. George W. Bush saddled the economy with $5.07 trillion in debt. Barack Obama has come nowhere near this lofty goal.

Now, on to the all-important question, are we better off today than we were four years ago? The answer is a big and loud Hell, Yeah! Our economic output was actually negative when Barack Obama took office. We’ve seen real GDP growth go from negative to positive and remain continuously positive for the last ten quarters.

Finally, and most importantly, when Barack Obama took office our economy was losing over 600,000 jobs per month. We’ve seen private sector growth (really important to Republicans) for 29 straight months. It is time for Democrats, progressives and other liberally leaning allies to get our heads in the game. When the Republicans serve up a softball, we must hit it out of the park – every time. So, the answer to the question as to whether we are better off now than we were four years ago – (with a smile) Hell, Yes!

By ecthompsonmd|2012-09-03T21:01:53-04:00September 3rd, 2012|Economy, Obama administration, Party Politics|1 Comment

Paul Ryan fumbled the hand off

Paul Ryan was sent into the friendly confines of Fox News and he fumbled the hand off. This one was easy. He simply screwed up a simple question, a question which a ninth-grade debate student would have been ready for. Paul Ryan is the Republican financial guru on Capitol Hill. He developed the last two Republican budgets. Yet, when he was asked by Brit Hume about when his budget balances, he couldn’t answer the question.

Watch it:

Now, he should have planned for this question. It should have been obvious to everyone that he would get the question. He could have said, “The problem is that we are in such a huge deficit hole that we can’t balance the budget in the next five to seven years without huge cuts to social services which would devastate the elderly and poor and that is just not realistic at this time. Our plan is a nice step in the direction of fiscal health.” That would have been pretty good, but he didn’t say that.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-08-18T23:19:30-04:00August 17th, 2012|Economy|4 Comments